The Rooster and his Chicks.
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
September 24, 2005.
Lake Charles, Louisiana.
If I had to find an analogy; it looks like a tropical rain forest with undergrowth and a canopy. That is all decaying carbon matter. It is the basis for wetlands and it's black anoxic soil ecosystem. If the road weren't there we would be on our way to a very different reality for this land. The point is that nature has a dynamics that 'carbon unites' like humans have little control over. There is little 'sense' to rebuilding 'towns' IF the wetlands are not first returned and the fury of storms moved far back to sea from here.
Morning Papers - It's Origins
Rooster "Cock-When-Doodle-Due"
"Oak-He-Doe-$he" - It's what's expected of him. Is there a real rooster anywhere in the barnyard?
History
1792 the French National Convention voted to abolish the monarchy.
1829 A militant anti-slavery pamphlet, "David Walker's Appeal", is published in Boston, MA.
1867 Maggie Lena Walker, Saint Luke Penny Savings Bank's founder, is born in Richmond, VA.
1895 The National Baptist Convention is organized by merging three major Baptist convention organizations into one.
1897 the New York Sun ran its famous editorial that declared, "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus."
1937 "The Hobbit," by J.R.R. Tolkien, was first published.
1938 a hurricane struck parts of New York and New England, causing widespread damage and claiming more than 600 lives.
1949 the People's Republic of China was proclaimed by its Communist leaders.
1964 Malta gained independence from Britain.
1970 "NFL Monday Night Football" made its debut on ABC-TV as the Cleveland Browns defeated the visiting New York Jets, 31-21.
1973 the U.S. Senate confirmed Henry Kissinger to be Secretary of State.
1976 Orlando Letelier, one-time foreign minister to Chilean President Salvador Allende, was killed when a bomb exploded in his car in Washington, D.C.
1981 the Senate unanimously confirmed the nomination of Sandra Day O'Connor to become the first female justice on the Supreme Court.
1989 Hurricane Hugo crashed into Charleston, S.C.
1991 Jazz Great Miles Davis, once made a Knight in the French Legion of Honor, dies in Santa Monica, CA.
Missing in Action
1965 GARWOOD ROBERT R. GREENVILLE IN 03/21/79 RELEASED/EXPAT
1966 BRASHER JIMMY M. CANYON TX
1966 PITTMAN ROBERT E. JACKSONVILLE FL
1966 TAYLOR DANNY G. ST LOUIS MO
1967 GRAHAM GILBERT J. ANAHEIM CA
1967 MUSETTI JOSEPH T. JR. HALL QUARRY ME
1968 DIXON DAVID L. MEDFORD OR
1968 HALPIN DAVID P. WATERTOWN NY
Journalism at Risk
Police make mass arrests in Nepalese capital
Saturday, September 17, 2005 Page A23
Kathmandu -- Police arrested 87 journalists as they gathered yesterday to protest against media restrictions in Nepal while thousands of pro-democracy activists demonstrated elsewhere in the city to demand an end to absolute royal rule. About 200 of those protesters were also arrested.
The arrests came amid an often-violent crackdown on pro-democracy protests in the capital and underscored rising tensions in the Himalayan kingdom, which is beset by a long-running Communist insurgency.
Police arrested the journalists as they prepared to hold a rally to demand the lifting of restrictions on the press and freedom for six reporters jailed for critical writings against the government. AP
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20050917/WORLDREPORT17-6/TPInternational/TopStories
CHAD: Three journalists freed; another ordered expelled
New York, September 26, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the release of three jailed journalists today in Chad. Garondé Djarma, Micha雔 Didama, and Sy Koumbo Singa Gali had been sentenced in July and August to prison terms ranging from six months to three years on charges related to their work.
An appeals court in the capital, N'Djamena, today overturned the convictions of Djarma and Sy, based on procedural irregularities, local sources said. The court upheld Didama's conviction on charges of "inciting hatred" and "defaming the president," but sentenced him to the month and a half of prison time he had already served. Didama told CPJ he would seek a further appeal of the conviction.
The court also overturned the conviction of Ngaradoumbé Samory, a fourth journalist targeted in this summer's crackdown on the media, again citing procedural irregularities. Samory was sentenced to three months in jail on July 18, but was granted a provisional release on September 8 pending a decision in his appeal.
http://www.cpj.org/news/2005/Chad26sept05na.html
Reporter jailed for bin Laden story
From: Reuters
From correspondents in Madrid, Spain
September 27, 2005
MEDIA groups condemned a Spanish court today for jailing an Arab journalist, known for interviewing Osama bin Laden shortly after the September 11 attacks, on terrorism charges.
A European media watchdog said sentencing Al Jazeera reporter Tayseer Alouni for seven years in jail would set alarm bells ringing among investigative journalists and might make them think twice before undertaking risky assignments.
"I think it sets a dangerous precedent, particularly for anyone who seeks to interview bin Laden in the future," said Jean-Francois Julliard, news editor of the Paris-based watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RWF).
"Journalists have always investigated terrorist groups and their activities. It's part of our job," he said.
The New York-based media watchdog, the Committee to Protect Journalists, said it intended to study the verdict.
Alouni was found guilty of collaborating with al-Qaeda in Europe's biggest-ever trial of suspected Islamist militants. He was one of 18 defendants sentenced.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,16735053-23109,00.html
Chad court frees four journalists, convictions illegal - court
Tue Sep 27, 2005 8:35 AM GMT
N'DJAMENA (Reuters) - A court in Chad freed four journalists on Monday after ruling their convictions were illegal, in a decision one media rights watchdog said could lead to greater media freedom in the central African state.
The criminal chamber of Chad's appeal court said the reporters' imprisonment violated press laws in the former French colony, ruled by ex-army chief President Idriss Deby since he seized power in a 1990 coup.
"This is a brave decision and I can only salute the judges' courage," said Koumbo Singa Gali Sy, sentenced to a year in prison in August for inciting tribal hatred after publishing an interview in weekly L'Observateur with another of the reporters, Garonde Djarma.
Judges in Chad usually toe the government's line.
http://za.today.reuters.com/news/NewsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2005-09-27T063422Z_01_ALL723543_RTRIDST_0_OZATP-CHAD-JOURNALISTS-20050927.XML
SOMALIA: Radio journalist jailed for reports on Puntland prison
New York, September 27, 2005—Authorities in the Puntland city of Bossasso arrested an STN radio editor Monday in connection with his reporting on prison conditions, according to the Somali journalists union NUSOJ and a local source. Awale Jama Salad is being detained without charge for the second time in recent months.
The arrest stems from Awale Jama's reports in July on his previous imprisonment, according to NUSOJ and the local source. Those reports, broadcast on STN and picked up by some local newspapers, alleged that officials at Bossasso prison were taking bribes to free prisoners, and that conditions in the jail were so bad they were causing the spread of disease. Authorities are accusing Awale Jama of defamation and publishing false information, although he has not been officially charged, NUSOJ said.
http://www.cpj.org/news/2005/Somalia27sept05na.html
Media workers released from jail in Chad
September 27 2005 at 04:39AM
N'djamena - An appeals court in Chad has released three journalists who were jailed in a recent crackdown on the independent press, days after President Idriss Deby promised an international media watchdog group that he would look into their case.
The court cited procedural irregularities on Monday as it overturned the convictions of Garonde Djarma, Michael Didama, and Sy Koumbo Singa Gali, who were sentenced in July and August to prison terms ranging from six months to three years.
The court, however, upheld Didama's conviction on charges of "inciting hatred" and "defaming the president", but sentenced him to the month and a half of prison time he had already served, according to the New York Committee to Protect Journalists.
http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=86&art_id=qw1127810881276B235
Hunger strikers in Cuba's cruel jails
OUR OPINION: WORLD SHOULD PRESSURE REGIME TO FREE POLITICAL PRISONERS
Political prisoners continue to suffer in Cuba, and they must not be forgotten. Now, at least three of them are on hunger strikes protesting horrendous conditions when they should never have been locked up in the first place. They're being punished for demanding political reforms and democracy. Indeed, the regime's more than 300 political prisoners are subjected to cruel treatment for doing what is legal in any free country. No effort should be spared by the international community to demand their release.
25-year sentences
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/12758380.htm
The Boston Globe
DeLay says he is innocent of charges
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, looks on during a news conference regarding Hurricane Katrina on Capitol Hill in this Sept. 2, 2005 file photo. A Texas grand jury's recent interest in conspiracy charges could lead to last-minute criminal indictments, possibly against DeLay, as it wraps up its investigation Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2005, into DeLay's state political organization, according to lawyers with knowledge of the case. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)
By Larry Margasak, Associated Press Writer September 28, 2005
WASHINGTON --A Texas grand jury on Wednesday indicted Rep. Tom DeLay and two political associates on charges of conspiracy in a campaign finance scheme, forcing the House majority leader to temporarily relinquish his post. A defiant DeLay insisted he was innocent and called the prosecutor a "partisan fanatic."
"I have done nothing wrong. ...I am innocent," DeLay told a Capitol Hill news conference during which he criticized the Texas prosecutor, Ronnie Earle, repeatedly. DeLay said the charges amounted to "one of the weakest and most baseless indictments in American history."
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2005/09/28/delay_indicted_in_campaign_finance_probe/
New England encyclopedia: Paul Revere, candlepin bowling, hermits
Items from the Encyclopedia of New England (from left): tupperware, wiffle ball, Benjamin Franklin, L.L. Bean, Paul Revere (his lantern is shown), and candlepin bowling.
By Beverley Wang, Associated Press Writer September 28, 2005
CONCORD, N.H. --It may be the only place where candlepin bowling and Paul Revere meet between the covers, and cookies, covered bridges, diners and doughnuts could ever appear as successive entries.
A new encyclopedia, 13 years in the making and out this month, covers the history, politics, art, geography and culture of New England.
The 1,564-page, 8-pound Encyclopedia of New England wrestles with capturing a region that is unique, yet the source of much of what is considered generically American.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/new_hampshire/articles/2005/09/28/new_england_encyclopedia_paul_revere_candlepin_bowling_hermits
Lobster thieves working wharves in southern Maine
September 28, 2005
BRUNSWICK, Maine --Lobster rustlers have been working wharves in southern Maine, snatching thousands of dollars worth of the shellfish from floating crates and frustrating fishermen and marine patrol officers.
Since Aug. 31, thieves have hit lobster wharves from Cundy's Harbor to South Harpswell a half dozen times, snatching $17,000 worth of catch and robbing lobstermen of several days of work.
The thieves' latest target was Morse Lobster in Harpswell Center, where $2,000 worth of lobsters vanished on Sept. 21. Owner Sheldon Morse said he heard a boat in the cove around the time of the thefts, but didn't pay much attention because boating activity on a warm night isn't unusual.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/maine/articles/2005/09/28/lobster_thieves_working_wharves_in_southern_maine/
Gas blamed for record late credit card payments
By Jonathan Stempel September 28, 2005
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A record number of Americans delayed making credit card payments in the second quarter as rising gasoline prices made it tougher for many people to pay their bills, a survey released on Wednesday shows.
The American Bankers Association said the percentage of card accounts 30 days or more past due rose to 4.81 percent from 4.76 percent in the first quarter. The latter number was revised upward from 4.03 percent.
"Gas is the driving factor," said James Chessen, the banker group's chief economist, in an interview. "For those already struggling to meet their financial obligations, it has been one more strain."
The data appear to contrast with a recent Federal Reserve survey of the 100 largest U.S. banks, showing the consumer card delinquency rate rising to just 3.7 percent from 3.68 percent, a 10-year low.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2005/09/28/gas_blamed_for_record_late_credit_card_payments/
Germans still dispute who is next leader
By David McHugh September 28, 2005
BERLIN --Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and conservative challenger Angela Merkel didn't resolve their dispute over who should be Germany's next leader during a 2 1/2-hour meeting Wednesday, but they still called the session helpful.
Merkel came out of the meeting at the Reichstag parliament building looking relaxed and describing the talks as "constructive and serious." Franz Muentefering, head of Schroeder's Social Democratic Party, called the preliminary discussions "fruitful."
Both sides said they focused on policy but had to leave their most serious dispute -- who should be the next chancellor -- for further talks in the coming weeks. The two sides are scheduled to meet again Oct. 5.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2005/09/28/germans_still_dispute_who_is_next_leader/
Putin aide says it's time to bury Lenin
September 28, 2005
MOSCOW --A senior aide to President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday the time has come to bury the embalmed body of Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin -- a statement that could be the Kremlin's attempt to gauge public reaction to the divisive issue.
Georgy Poltavchenko, Putin's envoy to the Central Federal District, said Lenin's body should be removed from its granite tomb on Red Square and buried in a cemetery along with remains of other Bolshevik dignitaries.
Poltavchenko said he was voicing his private opinion on the matter and did not elaborate. Putin has said in the past he was against burying Lenin's body.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2005/09/28/putin_aide_says_its_time_to_bury_lenin/
The Chicago Tribune
Some East Texans Still Trapped After Rita
By ABE LEVY
Associated Press Writer
Published September 28, 2005, 1:01 PM CDT
PORT ARTHUR, Texas -- Hundreds of East Texas residents remained trapped by fallen trees or fuel shortages Wednesday as federal relief began to trickle in to the rural-industrial region hit last week by Hurricane Rita.
Thousands Refugees from hurricanes Rita and Katrina, some who had lined up Tuesday night, sweltered for hours in a record-breaking, triple-digit heat wave at a newly reopened FEMA disaster relief center in Houston.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-rita,1,2014570.story?coll=chi-news-hed
Forecasts Say Major Hurricane Likely in October
Though late-season storms normally head for Florida, scientists won't rule out another hit on the Gulf Coast.
By Usha Lee McFarling
Times Staff Writer
Published September 28, 2005
Meteorologists examining the conditions that spawned hurricanes Rita and Katrina say there is a strong likelihood that another intense hurricane will occur in October.
And while late-season storms tend to track eastward toward Florida or don't make landfall at all, the experts don't rule out the possibility of another major storm targeting the battered Gulf Coast.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/la-na-forecast28sep28,1,3494440.story?coll=chi-news-hed
Curtain goes up on political corruption trial
By Rudolph Bush
Tribune staff reporter
Published September 28, 2005, 1:53 PM CDT
Former Gov. George Ryan was a corrupt public official who disregarded what was best for the people of his state to enrich a "chosen few" of his friends and supporters, prosecutors said as the widely anticipated trial got under way today.
"This case is about betrayal of the public trust," Assistant U.S. Atty. Zachary Fardon said in a stinging 90-minute opening statement in which he lashed into Ryan's tenure as secretary of state and governor.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-050928ryantrial,1,789932.story?coll=chi-news-hed
Daley asks state lawmakers to make tax cap permanent
The Associated Press
Published September 28, 2005, 3:09 PM CDT
Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley called on state lawmakers Wednesday to make permanent a cap on the value that can be added to a home during property tax assessments.
Legislation that allows counties across the state to put a temporary 7 percent limit on increases in property assessments — the official value estimates that are used to calculate tax bills — will not extend to the next round of assessments in Chicago in 2006, which could lead to future sticker shock for many homeowners, Daley said.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-050929propertytaxes,1,4705053.story?coll=chi-news-hed
Two to Share $100K 'Wendy's Finger' Reward
By JUSTIN M. NORTON
Associated Press Writer
Published September 27, 2005, 6:06 PM CDT
SAN FRANCISCO -- A businessman will split a $100,000 reward from Wendy's International Inc. with an anonymous tipster for helping solve the infamous "chili finger" case, the company said Tuesday.
Mike Casey, who runs an asphalt plant in Las Vegas that employed both the man who lost the finger and the husband of the woman who claimed she bit into the digit, had complained last week he hadn't been compensated for the tip that helped authorities unravel the scheme.
"I did what they wanted and they offered it, so I think I have it coming," he said at the time.
Wendy's, based in Dublin, Ohio, said it was grateful to all the tipsters who called a hot line set up when profits plunged after reports of the hoax hit headlines worldwide.
"We sincerely thank these citizens for stepping forward and calling the special hot line number with information that helped investigators break open this case," Wendy's officials said in a statement.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/sns-ap-wendys-finger,1,4034724.story?coll=chi-news-hed
Who's in charge?
Published September 28, 2005
Michael Brown, former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, was sweating in the spotlight Tuesday. He faced questioning by a special congressional panel investigating the government's initially abysmal response to Hurricane Katrina. This probably won't be the last time Brown gets grilled by hostile congressmen intent on discovering what went so wrong. There's a Senate inquiry pending and the president has appointed an aide to, essentially, ask the same questions.
Brown's bumbling Katrina performance is fair game. He quit over it, after all. But as Brown pointed out, none too diplomatically, he shouldn't be the only one in the hot seat. There's the governor of Louisiana and the mayor of New Orleans, for starters. Keystone Kops doesn't begin to describe the chaos and confusion apparent to all on the ground in the first days after the storm swamped New Orleans.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-0509280234sep28,1,5700312.story?coll=chi-opinionfront-hed
The Jerusalem Post
Fearing hit, Hamas leaders in Gaza go underground
By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
Hamas said on Wednesday that it was not afraid of Israel's threats to eliminate its top leaders and pointed out that the policy of targeted assassinations would only boost the movement's standing.
Despite the defiant statement, sources in the Gaza Strip said most of the Hamas leaders have gone underground for fear of being targeted by Israel.
Hamas was responding to threats made on Tuesday by Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, who said that if Hamas did not stop its rocket attacks, Israel would send Mahmoud Zahar and Ismail Haniyeh to the same place as slain Hamas leaders Ahmed Yassin and Abdel Aziz Rantisi.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1127874075134
J'lem-based Saudi Hamas liaison nabbed
By ETGAR LEFKOVITS
A senior Hamas operative who served as the Jerusalem-based liaison between Hamas operatives in Saudi Arabia and activists in the West Bank is under arrest, Jerusalem police chief Ilan Franco said Tuesday.
Ya'akub Abu Assab, 33, of the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Souana was apprehended last month in a joint Shin Bet-Jerusalem police sting operation.
A court-imposed gag order which was in place on the case was lifted Tuesday afternoon.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1127787592589
Israel: Stop 'nuclear threat' resolution
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
VIENNA, Austria
Israel urged Arab nations on Wednesday to withdraw a push to have it declared a menace to peace at a 139-nation meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency, suggesting Iran's suspect nuclear programs posed the real threat to the Middle East.
Gideon Frank, the head of Israel's nuclear program and Israel's chief delegate to the IAEA's general conference, was responding to preparations by Arab countries to present a resolution stating that Israel's secretive atomic program threatened Middle East peace.
Israel "will not be in a position to support" a separate resolution urging all Middle East nations to throw open their nuclear program to IAEA controls unless the plan to table a text on the Israeli threat is dropped, he said.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1127874072796
Israeli scientists solve mystery of 'dark matter'
By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH
A group of Israeli scientists have cracked a riddle of the universe that has been vexing researchers for years.
Dark matter – the stuff that seems to comprise most of the matter in the universe – is very mysterious because it appears to be absent from some galaxies. But it is there after all, according to Hebrew University physicists.
Cosmology Prof. Avishai Dekel and colleagues at the HU's Racah Institute of Physics will publish their important findings in the September 29 issue of the prestigious journal Nature.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1127874075526
The Miami Herald
At last, WWII vet wins case
After years of battling the Department of Veterans Affairs, a partially blind World War II fighter pilot has been awarded disability payments.
BY ALISON YOUNG
Herald Washington Bureau
Fighter pilot Frank Fong of Weston, who lost sight in one eye as he battled Nazis during World War II, has finally won his war against the Department of Veterans Affairs.
More than half a century after he sought compensation for his injury, the VA said Tuesday that it was sending Fong, 86, a check for about $67,000 in payments it should have started making in 1950.
''Veterans have to be persistent. If you let them jack you around, you'll get nothing,'' said Fong, a retired commercial artist.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/12758115.htm
No tax cut; county saves for rainy day
Broward County commissioners rejected a proposal to cut taxes, saying they need reserves for future projects and emergencies.
BY AMY SHERMAN
asherman@herald.com
Most Broward County homeowners will pay about as much in county taxes next year as they did this year, after the commission Tuesday narrowly approved a $3 billion budget that maintains reserve funds and pays for rising salaries, fuel costs and other needs.
The 5-4 vote effectively rejected a proposal by Commissioner Jim Scott to slash $20 million. The cut would have translated to about $26 in savings for the owner of a $162,500 home -- the average taxable value in the county, with the homestead exemption -- or $64 in savings for a home with a taxable value of $400,000.
The approved budget means that the owner of the average home will pay $1,102 in county taxes next year, based on a tax rate of $6.78 per $1,000 of taxable property, down from $7.02 this year.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/12758117.htm
13 Haitians come ashore in Broward
BY JULIA NEYMAN
jneyman@herald.com
Two boats carrying Haitians came ashore early Tuesday morning in what officials are calling an illegal smuggling effort.
The Broward Sheriff's Office apprehended the migrants -- one boatload in Pompano Beach and the other in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea -- early Tuesday morning, according to BSO.
''The migrants were on two boats that were occupied by 13 [people],'' BSO spokeswoman Liz Calzadilla-Fiallo said. ``Eleven of the 13 were captured and detailed by border patrol. Two remain at large.''
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/12762348.htm
Schiavo's family to pen memoir
Terri Schiavo's family has signed an agreement to write a tell-all book about their battle to save the brain-damaged woman's life.
BY MITCH STACY
Associated Press
TAMPA - Terri Schiavo's parents and siblings are writing a book about their struggle in the epic end-of-life case that divided the country and captured the attention of everyone from Pope John Paul II to President Bush, their publisher said Tuesday.
The yet untitled memoir by parents Bob and Mary Schindler, brother Bobby Schindler and sister Suzanne Vitadamo will be published in March to coincide with the first anniversary of the death of the brain-damaged woman, whose feeding tube was removed after her husband won a court order to do so.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/12758139.htm
Prosecutors seek to quiz doctors in Limbaugh case
Prosecutors hope to call Rush Limbaugh's doctors and their employees in the pain pill case.
BY JILL BARTON
Associated Press
WEST PALM BEACH - Prosecutors investigating Rush Limbaugh over his use of prescription painkillers want to subpoena the conservative commentator's doctors and the doctors' employees, according to a motion filed on Tuesday.
Limbaugh's attorneys are fighting the move, arguing that the doctors' testimony could reveal privileged medical information.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/12758136.htm
continued …
"Oak-He-Doe-$he" - It's what's expected of him. Is there a real rooster anywhere in the barnyard?
History
1792 the French National Convention voted to abolish the monarchy.
1829 A militant anti-slavery pamphlet, "David Walker's Appeal", is published in Boston, MA.
1867 Maggie Lena Walker, Saint Luke Penny Savings Bank's founder, is born in Richmond, VA.
1895 The National Baptist Convention is organized by merging three major Baptist convention organizations into one.
1897 the New York Sun ran its famous editorial that declared, "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus."
1937 "The Hobbit," by J.R.R. Tolkien, was first published.
1938 a hurricane struck parts of New York and New England, causing widespread damage and claiming more than 600 lives.
1949 the People's Republic of China was proclaimed by its Communist leaders.
1964 Malta gained independence from Britain.
1970 "NFL Monday Night Football" made its debut on ABC-TV as the Cleveland Browns defeated the visiting New York Jets, 31-21.
1973 the U.S. Senate confirmed Henry Kissinger to be Secretary of State.
1976 Orlando Letelier, one-time foreign minister to Chilean President Salvador Allende, was killed when a bomb exploded in his car in Washington, D.C.
1981 the Senate unanimously confirmed the nomination of Sandra Day O'Connor to become the first female justice on the Supreme Court.
1989 Hurricane Hugo crashed into Charleston, S.C.
1991 Jazz Great Miles Davis, once made a Knight in the French Legion of Honor, dies in Santa Monica, CA.
Missing in Action
1965 GARWOOD ROBERT R. GREENVILLE IN 03/21/79 RELEASED/EXPAT
1966 BRASHER JIMMY M. CANYON TX
1966 PITTMAN ROBERT E. JACKSONVILLE FL
1966 TAYLOR DANNY G. ST LOUIS MO
1967 GRAHAM GILBERT J. ANAHEIM CA
1967 MUSETTI JOSEPH T. JR. HALL QUARRY ME
1968 DIXON DAVID L. MEDFORD OR
1968 HALPIN DAVID P. WATERTOWN NY
Journalism at Risk
Police make mass arrests in Nepalese capital
Saturday, September 17, 2005 Page A23
Kathmandu -- Police arrested 87 journalists as they gathered yesterday to protest against media restrictions in Nepal while thousands of pro-democracy activists demonstrated elsewhere in the city to demand an end to absolute royal rule. About 200 of those protesters were also arrested.
The arrests came amid an often-violent crackdown on pro-democracy protests in the capital and underscored rising tensions in the Himalayan kingdom, which is beset by a long-running Communist insurgency.
Police arrested the journalists as they prepared to hold a rally to demand the lifting of restrictions on the press and freedom for six reporters jailed for critical writings against the government. AP
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20050917/WORLDREPORT17-6/TPInternational/TopStories
CHAD: Three journalists freed; another ordered expelled
New York, September 26, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the release of three jailed journalists today in Chad. Garondé Djarma, Micha雔 Didama, and Sy Koumbo Singa Gali had been sentenced in July and August to prison terms ranging from six months to three years on charges related to their work.
An appeals court in the capital, N'Djamena, today overturned the convictions of Djarma and Sy, based on procedural irregularities, local sources said. The court upheld Didama's conviction on charges of "inciting hatred" and "defaming the president," but sentenced him to the month and a half of prison time he had already served. Didama told CPJ he would seek a further appeal of the conviction.
The court also overturned the conviction of Ngaradoumbé Samory, a fourth journalist targeted in this summer's crackdown on the media, again citing procedural irregularities. Samory was sentenced to three months in jail on July 18, but was granted a provisional release on September 8 pending a decision in his appeal.
http://www.cpj.org/news/2005/Chad26sept05na.html
Reporter jailed for bin Laden story
From: Reuters
From correspondents in Madrid, Spain
September 27, 2005
MEDIA groups condemned a Spanish court today for jailing an Arab journalist, known for interviewing Osama bin Laden shortly after the September 11 attacks, on terrorism charges.
A European media watchdog said sentencing Al Jazeera reporter Tayseer Alouni for seven years in jail would set alarm bells ringing among investigative journalists and might make them think twice before undertaking risky assignments.
"I think it sets a dangerous precedent, particularly for anyone who seeks to interview bin Laden in the future," said Jean-Francois Julliard, news editor of the Paris-based watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RWF).
"Journalists have always investigated terrorist groups and their activities. It's part of our job," he said.
The New York-based media watchdog, the Committee to Protect Journalists, said it intended to study the verdict.
Alouni was found guilty of collaborating with al-Qaeda in Europe's biggest-ever trial of suspected Islamist militants. He was one of 18 defendants sentenced.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,16735053-23109,00.html
Chad court frees four journalists, convictions illegal - court
Tue Sep 27, 2005 8:35 AM GMT
N'DJAMENA (Reuters) - A court in Chad freed four journalists on Monday after ruling their convictions were illegal, in a decision one media rights watchdog said could lead to greater media freedom in the central African state.
The criminal chamber of Chad's appeal court said the reporters' imprisonment violated press laws in the former French colony, ruled by ex-army chief President Idriss Deby since he seized power in a 1990 coup.
"This is a brave decision and I can only salute the judges' courage," said Koumbo Singa Gali Sy, sentenced to a year in prison in August for inciting tribal hatred after publishing an interview in weekly L'Observateur with another of the reporters, Garonde Djarma.
Judges in Chad usually toe the government's line.
http://za.today.reuters.com/news/NewsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2005-09-27T063422Z_01_ALL723543_RTRIDST_0_OZATP-CHAD-JOURNALISTS-20050927.XML
SOMALIA: Radio journalist jailed for reports on Puntland prison
New York, September 27, 2005—Authorities in the Puntland city of Bossasso arrested an STN radio editor Monday in connection with his reporting on prison conditions, according to the Somali journalists union NUSOJ and a local source. Awale Jama Salad is being detained without charge for the second time in recent months.
The arrest stems from Awale Jama's reports in July on his previous imprisonment, according to NUSOJ and the local source. Those reports, broadcast on STN and picked up by some local newspapers, alleged that officials at Bossasso prison were taking bribes to free prisoners, and that conditions in the jail were so bad they were causing the spread of disease. Authorities are accusing Awale Jama of defamation and publishing false information, although he has not been officially charged, NUSOJ said.
http://www.cpj.org/news/2005/Somalia27sept05na.html
Media workers released from jail in Chad
September 27 2005 at 04:39AM
N'djamena - An appeals court in Chad has released three journalists who were jailed in a recent crackdown on the independent press, days after President Idriss Deby promised an international media watchdog group that he would look into their case.
The court cited procedural irregularities on Monday as it overturned the convictions of Garonde Djarma, Michael Didama, and Sy Koumbo Singa Gali, who were sentenced in July and August to prison terms ranging from six months to three years.
The court, however, upheld Didama's conviction on charges of "inciting hatred" and "defaming the president", but sentenced him to the month and a half of prison time he had already served, according to the New York Committee to Protect Journalists.
http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=86&art_id=qw1127810881276B235
Hunger strikers in Cuba's cruel jails
OUR OPINION: WORLD SHOULD PRESSURE REGIME TO FREE POLITICAL PRISONERS
Political prisoners continue to suffer in Cuba, and they must not be forgotten. Now, at least three of them are on hunger strikes protesting horrendous conditions when they should never have been locked up in the first place. They're being punished for demanding political reforms and democracy. Indeed, the regime's more than 300 political prisoners are subjected to cruel treatment for doing what is legal in any free country. No effort should be spared by the international community to demand their release.
25-year sentences
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/12758380.htm
The Boston Globe
DeLay says he is innocent of charges
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, looks on during a news conference regarding Hurricane Katrina on Capitol Hill in this Sept. 2, 2005 file photo. A Texas grand jury's recent interest in conspiracy charges could lead to last-minute criminal indictments, possibly against DeLay, as it wraps up its investigation Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2005, into DeLay's state political organization, according to lawyers with knowledge of the case. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)
By Larry Margasak, Associated Press Writer September 28, 2005
WASHINGTON --A Texas grand jury on Wednesday indicted Rep. Tom DeLay and two political associates on charges of conspiracy in a campaign finance scheme, forcing the House majority leader to temporarily relinquish his post. A defiant DeLay insisted he was innocent and called the prosecutor a "partisan fanatic."
"I have done nothing wrong. ...I am innocent," DeLay told a Capitol Hill news conference during which he criticized the Texas prosecutor, Ronnie Earle, repeatedly. DeLay said the charges amounted to "one of the weakest and most baseless indictments in American history."
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2005/09/28/delay_indicted_in_campaign_finance_probe/
New England encyclopedia: Paul Revere, candlepin bowling, hermits
Items from the Encyclopedia of New England (from left): tupperware, wiffle ball, Benjamin Franklin, L.L. Bean, Paul Revere (his lantern is shown), and candlepin bowling.
By Beverley Wang, Associated Press Writer September 28, 2005
CONCORD, N.H. --It may be the only place where candlepin bowling and Paul Revere meet between the covers, and cookies, covered bridges, diners and doughnuts could ever appear as successive entries.
A new encyclopedia, 13 years in the making and out this month, covers the history, politics, art, geography and culture of New England.
The 1,564-page, 8-pound Encyclopedia of New England wrestles with capturing a region that is unique, yet the source of much of what is considered generically American.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/new_hampshire/articles/2005/09/28/new_england_encyclopedia_paul_revere_candlepin_bowling_hermits
Lobster thieves working wharves in southern Maine
September 28, 2005
BRUNSWICK, Maine --Lobster rustlers have been working wharves in southern Maine, snatching thousands of dollars worth of the shellfish from floating crates and frustrating fishermen and marine patrol officers.
Since Aug. 31, thieves have hit lobster wharves from Cundy's Harbor to South Harpswell a half dozen times, snatching $17,000 worth of catch and robbing lobstermen of several days of work.
The thieves' latest target was Morse Lobster in Harpswell Center, where $2,000 worth of lobsters vanished on Sept. 21. Owner Sheldon Morse said he heard a boat in the cove around the time of the thefts, but didn't pay much attention because boating activity on a warm night isn't unusual.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/maine/articles/2005/09/28/lobster_thieves_working_wharves_in_southern_maine/
Gas blamed for record late credit card payments
By Jonathan Stempel September 28, 2005
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A record number of Americans delayed making credit card payments in the second quarter as rising gasoline prices made it tougher for many people to pay their bills, a survey released on Wednesday shows.
The American Bankers Association said the percentage of card accounts 30 days or more past due rose to 4.81 percent from 4.76 percent in the first quarter. The latter number was revised upward from 4.03 percent.
"Gas is the driving factor," said James Chessen, the banker group's chief economist, in an interview. "For those already struggling to meet their financial obligations, it has been one more strain."
The data appear to contrast with a recent Federal Reserve survey of the 100 largest U.S. banks, showing the consumer card delinquency rate rising to just 3.7 percent from 3.68 percent, a 10-year low.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2005/09/28/gas_blamed_for_record_late_credit_card_payments/
Germans still dispute who is next leader
By David McHugh September 28, 2005
BERLIN --Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and conservative challenger Angela Merkel didn't resolve their dispute over who should be Germany's next leader during a 2 1/2-hour meeting Wednesday, but they still called the session helpful.
Merkel came out of the meeting at the Reichstag parliament building looking relaxed and describing the talks as "constructive and serious." Franz Muentefering, head of Schroeder's Social Democratic Party, called the preliminary discussions "fruitful."
Both sides said they focused on policy but had to leave their most serious dispute -- who should be the next chancellor -- for further talks in the coming weeks. The two sides are scheduled to meet again Oct. 5.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2005/09/28/germans_still_dispute_who_is_next_leader/
Putin aide says it's time to bury Lenin
September 28, 2005
MOSCOW --A senior aide to President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday the time has come to bury the embalmed body of Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin -- a statement that could be the Kremlin's attempt to gauge public reaction to the divisive issue.
Georgy Poltavchenko, Putin's envoy to the Central Federal District, said Lenin's body should be removed from its granite tomb on Red Square and buried in a cemetery along with remains of other Bolshevik dignitaries.
Poltavchenko said he was voicing his private opinion on the matter and did not elaborate. Putin has said in the past he was against burying Lenin's body.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2005/09/28/putin_aide_says_its_time_to_bury_lenin/
The Chicago Tribune
Some East Texans Still Trapped After Rita
By ABE LEVY
Associated Press Writer
Published September 28, 2005, 1:01 PM CDT
PORT ARTHUR, Texas -- Hundreds of East Texas residents remained trapped by fallen trees or fuel shortages Wednesday as federal relief began to trickle in to the rural-industrial region hit last week by Hurricane Rita.
Thousands Refugees from hurricanes Rita and Katrina, some who had lined up Tuesday night, sweltered for hours in a record-breaking, triple-digit heat wave at a newly reopened FEMA disaster relief center in Houston.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-rita,1,2014570.story?coll=chi-news-hed
Forecasts Say Major Hurricane Likely in October
Though late-season storms normally head for Florida, scientists won't rule out another hit on the Gulf Coast.
By Usha Lee McFarling
Times Staff Writer
Published September 28, 2005
Meteorologists examining the conditions that spawned hurricanes Rita and Katrina say there is a strong likelihood that another intense hurricane will occur in October.
And while late-season storms tend to track eastward toward Florida or don't make landfall at all, the experts don't rule out the possibility of another major storm targeting the battered Gulf Coast.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/la-na-forecast28sep28,1,3494440.story?coll=chi-news-hed
Curtain goes up on political corruption trial
By Rudolph Bush
Tribune staff reporter
Published September 28, 2005, 1:53 PM CDT
Former Gov. George Ryan was a corrupt public official who disregarded what was best for the people of his state to enrich a "chosen few" of his friends and supporters, prosecutors said as the widely anticipated trial got under way today.
"This case is about betrayal of the public trust," Assistant U.S. Atty. Zachary Fardon said in a stinging 90-minute opening statement in which he lashed into Ryan's tenure as secretary of state and governor.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-050928ryantrial,1,789932.story?coll=chi-news-hed
Daley asks state lawmakers to make tax cap permanent
The Associated Press
Published September 28, 2005, 3:09 PM CDT
Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley called on state lawmakers Wednesday to make permanent a cap on the value that can be added to a home during property tax assessments.
Legislation that allows counties across the state to put a temporary 7 percent limit on increases in property assessments — the official value estimates that are used to calculate tax bills — will not extend to the next round of assessments in Chicago in 2006, which could lead to future sticker shock for many homeowners, Daley said.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-050929propertytaxes,1,4705053.story?coll=chi-news-hed
Two to Share $100K 'Wendy's Finger' Reward
By JUSTIN M. NORTON
Associated Press Writer
Published September 27, 2005, 6:06 PM CDT
SAN FRANCISCO -- A businessman will split a $100,000 reward from Wendy's International Inc. with an anonymous tipster for helping solve the infamous "chili finger" case, the company said Tuesday.
Mike Casey, who runs an asphalt plant in Las Vegas that employed both the man who lost the finger and the husband of the woman who claimed she bit into the digit, had complained last week he hadn't been compensated for the tip that helped authorities unravel the scheme.
"I did what they wanted and they offered it, so I think I have it coming," he said at the time.
Wendy's, based in Dublin, Ohio, said it was grateful to all the tipsters who called a hot line set up when profits plunged after reports of the hoax hit headlines worldwide.
"We sincerely thank these citizens for stepping forward and calling the special hot line number with information that helped investigators break open this case," Wendy's officials said in a statement.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/sns-ap-wendys-finger,1,4034724.story?coll=chi-news-hed
Who's in charge?
Published September 28, 2005
Michael Brown, former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, was sweating in the spotlight Tuesday. He faced questioning by a special congressional panel investigating the government's initially abysmal response to Hurricane Katrina. This probably won't be the last time Brown gets grilled by hostile congressmen intent on discovering what went so wrong. There's a Senate inquiry pending and the president has appointed an aide to, essentially, ask the same questions.
Brown's bumbling Katrina performance is fair game. He quit over it, after all. But as Brown pointed out, none too diplomatically, he shouldn't be the only one in the hot seat. There's the governor of Louisiana and the mayor of New Orleans, for starters. Keystone Kops doesn't begin to describe the chaos and confusion apparent to all on the ground in the first days after the storm swamped New Orleans.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-0509280234sep28,1,5700312.story?coll=chi-opinionfront-hed
The Jerusalem Post
Fearing hit, Hamas leaders in Gaza go underground
By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
Hamas said on Wednesday that it was not afraid of Israel's threats to eliminate its top leaders and pointed out that the policy of targeted assassinations would only boost the movement's standing.
Despite the defiant statement, sources in the Gaza Strip said most of the Hamas leaders have gone underground for fear of being targeted by Israel.
Hamas was responding to threats made on Tuesday by Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, who said that if Hamas did not stop its rocket attacks, Israel would send Mahmoud Zahar and Ismail Haniyeh to the same place as slain Hamas leaders Ahmed Yassin and Abdel Aziz Rantisi.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1127874075134
J'lem-based Saudi Hamas liaison nabbed
By ETGAR LEFKOVITS
A senior Hamas operative who served as the Jerusalem-based liaison between Hamas operatives in Saudi Arabia and activists in the West Bank is under arrest, Jerusalem police chief Ilan Franco said Tuesday.
Ya'akub Abu Assab, 33, of the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Souana was apprehended last month in a joint Shin Bet-Jerusalem police sting operation.
A court-imposed gag order which was in place on the case was lifted Tuesday afternoon.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1127787592589
Israel: Stop 'nuclear threat' resolution
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
VIENNA, Austria
Israel urged Arab nations on Wednesday to withdraw a push to have it declared a menace to peace at a 139-nation meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency, suggesting Iran's suspect nuclear programs posed the real threat to the Middle East.
Gideon Frank, the head of Israel's nuclear program and Israel's chief delegate to the IAEA's general conference, was responding to preparations by Arab countries to present a resolution stating that Israel's secretive atomic program threatened Middle East peace.
Israel "will not be in a position to support" a separate resolution urging all Middle East nations to throw open their nuclear program to IAEA controls unless the plan to table a text on the Israeli threat is dropped, he said.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1127874072796
Israeli scientists solve mystery of 'dark matter'
By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH
A group of Israeli scientists have cracked a riddle of the universe that has been vexing researchers for years.
Dark matter – the stuff that seems to comprise most of the matter in the universe – is very mysterious because it appears to be absent from some galaxies. But it is there after all, according to Hebrew University physicists.
Cosmology Prof. Avishai Dekel and colleagues at the HU's Racah Institute of Physics will publish their important findings in the September 29 issue of the prestigious journal Nature.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1127874075526
The Miami Herald
At last, WWII vet wins case
After years of battling the Department of Veterans Affairs, a partially blind World War II fighter pilot has been awarded disability payments.
BY ALISON YOUNG
Herald Washington Bureau
Fighter pilot Frank Fong of Weston, who lost sight in one eye as he battled Nazis during World War II, has finally won his war against the Department of Veterans Affairs.
More than half a century after he sought compensation for his injury, the VA said Tuesday that it was sending Fong, 86, a check for about $67,000 in payments it should have started making in 1950.
''Veterans have to be persistent. If you let them jack you around, you'll get nothing,'' said Fong, a retired commercial artist.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/12758115.htm
No tax cut; county saves for rainy day
Broward County commissioners rejected a proposal to cut taxes, saying they need reserves for future projects and emergencies.
BY AMY SHERMAN
asherman@herald.com
Most Broward County homeowners will pay about as much in county taxes next year as they did this year, after the commission Tuesday narrowly approved a $3 billion budget that maintains reserve funds and pays for rising salaries, fuel costs and other needs.
The 5-4 vote effectively rejected a proposal by Commissioner Jim Scott to slash $20 million. The cut would have translated to about $26 in savings for the owner of a $162,500 home -- the average taxable value in the county, with the homestead exemption -- or $64 in savings for a home with a taxable value of $400,000.
The approved budget means that the owner of the average home will pay $1,102 in county taxes next year, based on a tax rate of $6.78 per $1,000 of taxable property, down from $7.02 this year.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/12758117.htm
13 Haitians come ashore in Broward
BY JULIA NEYMAN
jneyman@herald.com
Two boats carrying Haitians came ashore early Tuesday morning in what officials are calling an illegal smuggling effort.
The Broward Sheriff's Office apprehended the migrants -- one boatload in Pompano Beach and the other in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea -- early Tuesday morning, according to BSO.
''The migrants were on two boats that were occupied by 13 [people],'' BSO spokeswoman Liz Calzadilla-Fiallo said. ``Eleven of the 13 were captured and detailed by border patrol. Two remain at large.''
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/12762348.htm
Schiavo's family to pen memoir
Terri Schiavo's family has signed an agreement to write a tell-all book about their battle to save the brain-damaged woman's life.
BY MITCH STACY
Associated Press
TAMPA - Terri Schiavo's parents and siblings are writing a book about their struggle in the epic end-of-life case that divided the country and captured the attention of everyone from Pope John Paul II to President Bush, their publisher said Tuesday.
The yet untitled memoir by parents Bob and Mary Schindler, brother Bobby Schindler and sister Suzanne Vitadamo will be published in March to coincide with the first anniversary of the death of the brain-damaged woman, whose feeding tube was removed after her husband won a court order to do so.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/12758139.htm
Prosecutors seek to quiz doctors in Limbaugh case
Prosecutors hope to call Rush Limbaugh's doctors and their employees in the pain pill case.
BY JILL BARTON
Associated Press
WEST PALM BEACH - Prosecutors investigating Rush Limbaugh over his use of prescription painkillers want to subpoena the conservative commentator's doctors and the doctors' employees, according to a motion filed on Tuesday.
Limbaugh's attorneys are fighting the move, arguing that the doctors' testimony could reveal privileged medical information.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/12758136.htm
continued …
This picture appeared in "The Australian."
To me it showed a great deal of respect for those agrieved by this war.
The Washington Bunch like to tout their Evangelical Christian Belief System as the one the nation should adhere to and blindly follow Bush/Cheney into any war they spawn believing any excuse they offer.
There is nearly half a country that believes differently. It is very difficult to face a love for your country while realizing how wrongful the use of it's military is and then lose a loved one to that very wrongful war. It is a double insult to the soul. It is double grieving. It is a scar to the mind that is never erased.
No one. I mean no one in the USA stands alone. Never, again. Never.
Morning Papers - continued
Global Warming
Gov't: Effect of greenhouse gases rising
RANDOLPH E. SCHMID
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - The effect of greenhouse gases on the Earth's atmosphere has increased 20 percent since 1990, a new government index says.
The Annual Greenhouse Gas Index was released Tuesday by the Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory in Boulder, Colo.
Greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide accumulate in the atmosphere as a result of industrial and other processes. They can help trap solar heat, somewhat like a greenhouse, resulting in a gradual warming of the Earth's atmosphere.
The Earth's average temperature increased about 1 degree Fahrenheit during the 20th century. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns that continuing increases could have serious effects on crops, glaciers, the spread of disease, rising sea levels and other changes.
In its new analysis the laboratory, a branch of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, compares the amounts of carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and chlorofluorocarbons in the air. Those gases have been sampled for many years.
The index was set to a reading of 1 as of 1990 and the lab said it is currently 1.20, indicating an increase of 20 percent.
"The AGGI will serve as a gauge of success or failure of future efforts to curb carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas increases in the atmosphere both by natural and human-engineered processes," said David Hofmann, CMDL director.
The index is expected to be updated each April.
"This index provides us with a valuable benchmark for tracking the composition of the atmosphere as we seek to better understand the dynamics of Earth's climate," said NOAA Administrator Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Jr.
In the current reading, for every million air molecules there are about 375 carbon dioxide molecules, two are methane and less than one is a nitrous oxide molecule. The CFC's make up less than one molecule in a billion in the atmosphere but play a role in regulating Earth's climate and are a key factor in the depletion of the protective ozone layer, NOAA researchers say.
The gases produce an effect known as radiative forcing. It is a shift in the balance between solar radiation coming into the atmosphere and Earth's radiation going out. Radiative forcing, as measured by the index, is calculated from the atmospheric concentration of each contributing gas and the per-molecule climate forcing of each gas.
The lab said most of the increase measured since 1990 is due to carbon dioxide, which now accounts for about 62 percent of the radiative forcing by all long-lived greenhouse gases.
NOAA said the 1990 baseline was chosen because greenhouse gas emissions targeted by the international Kyoto Protocol also are indexed to 1990.
ON THE NET
NOAA Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Lab: http://www.cmdl.noaa.gov/
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/news/breaking_news/12756958.htm
Developing regional solutions to global warming's challenge
By William Ruckelshaus and K.C. Golden
Special to The Times
Guest columnists
The facts about global warming are becoming clear. We don't know everything about it, but we know it is happening. We know human activities, primarily burning fossil fuels, are very probably the dominant cause. We know it is likely to disrupt our economic and environmental systems if we don't change course.
This is the judgment of one of the most exhaustively peer-reviewed scientific collaborations in history, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
We also know that practical solutions are available — solutions like efficient cars and buildings that save money and reduce fossil-fuel dependence. We know that responsible public policies can limit emissions and encourage investment in clean energy. In other words, we know that we must and can act.
Global warming is a local and regional issue. University of Washington climate scientists project that we are on course to lose 50 to 70 percent of the Cascade snowpack by the 2050s. Snowpack is the water-storage system for the hydroelectricity that powers our economy and the irrigation that makes agriculture possible. Without it, we would lose a major source of our prosperity, and much of our salmon habitat.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2002149362_ruckelshaus13.html
An unnatural disaster
Contributed by: Wraun
· Global warming to kill off 1m species
· Scientists shocked by results of research
· 1 in 10 animals and plants extinct by 2050
Climate change over the next 50 years is expected to drive a quarter of land animals and plants into extinction, according to the first comprehensive study into the effect of higher temperatures on the natural world.
The sheer scale of the disaster facing the planet shocked those involved in the research. They estimate that more than 1 million species will be lost by 2050.
The results are described as "terrifying" by Chris Thomas, professor of conservation biology at Leeds University, who is lead author of the research from four continents published today in the magazine Nature.
http://www.vivelecanada.ca/article.php/20050113072352858
Australia and China Partner to Address Global Warming
CANBERRA, Australia, September 6, 2005 (ENS) - The Australian government is encouraging corporations to enter the Chinese renewable energy market under more than A$1 million dollars worth of new projects announced Monday by Environment Minister Senator Ian Campbell.
Four new joint projects between Australia and China have been formally agreed under Australia’s Bilateral Climate Change Partnerships Programme.
Australian Environment Minister Senator Ian Campbell (Photo courtesy Office of the Minister)
“These projects are particularly important, given that China is the world’s second largest emitter of greenhouse gases, and is predicted to become the largest emitter within 20 years,” Senator Campbell said.
The funding annoucement was timed to coincide with the 21st Century Forum for China being held in Beijing this week.
President of the Australian Conservation Foundation Professor Ian Lowe, today encouraged China to embrace renewable energy and energy efficiency and reject the myth that nuclear power is a clean alternative to coal.
"China's dream of modernization can be based on a new approach to energy," Professor Lowe said in an address this morning to a sustainable development conference in Beijing, that he is attending at the invitation of the Chinese government.
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/sep2005/2005-09-06-05.asp
Siberia's rapid thaw causes alarm
The whole western Siberian sub-Arctic region has started to thaw
The world's largest frozen peat bog is melting, which could speed the rate of global warming, New Scientist reports.
The huge expanse of western Siberia is thawing for the first time since its formation, 11,000 years ago.
The area, which is the size of France and Germany combined, could release billions of tonnes of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
This could potentially act as a tipping point, causing global warming to snowball, scientists fear.
The situation is an "ecological landslide that is probably irreversible and is undoubtedly connected to climatic warming," researcher Sergei Kirpotin, of Tomsk State University, Russia, told New Scientist magazine.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4141348.stm
The Ilulissat glacier, a wonder of the world melting away
The Ilulissat glacier in Greenland, a UN heritage site considered one of the wonders of the world, has shrunk by over 10 kilometers in just a few years, in one of the most alarming examples of global warming in the Arctic region.
"We are witnesses to one of the most striking examples of climate change in the Arctic," US expert Robert Corell said during a recent helicopter flight over the glacier.
The lower extremity of the glacier "has receded by more than 10 kilometers (six miles) in two or three years after having been relatively stable since the 1960s," he said.
Corell was in charge of the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment, a 1,400-page report written by more than 250 scientists and published in November 2004 which sounded alarm bells for the region.
The report warned that less than a century from now, the Arctic ice could melt completely during the summer, threatening many species and the lifestyle of the indigenous Inuit population.
Corell, a senior fellow with the American Meteorological Society in Washington D.C., took 22 environment ministers and other officials from around the world, meeting in Ilulissat last week for a conference on global warming, on a tour of the glacier to see the effects first-hand.
"We can't find any more concrete example of Arctic warming, which is twice as fast as in any other part of the world," Corell told AFP.
http://physorg.com/news5944.html
USA: Court Throws Out Exxon Valdez Fine
$5 Billion Too Much, Appeals Court Says
by Bob Egelko, San Francisco Chronicle
November 7th, 2001
A jury's $5 billion punitive damage award for the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill was too high compared to the damage caused and the sums the company already has spent for cleanup and compensation, a federal appeals court ruled today.
A three-judge U.S. Court of Appeals panel in San Francisco rejected Exxon Mobil Corp.'s attempt to throw out the entire punitive damage verdict -- saying it was justified by the knowing employment of an alcoholic captain -- but ordered a federal judge in Alaska to reduce the award.
The court did not specify the proper amount, but noted that the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled in another case in 1996, two years after the Exxon Valdez trial, that punitive damages four times as high as the amount of compensation awarded were "close to the line" allowed by the Constitution.
The suit was filed by commercial fishers, property owners and others harmed by the 11-million-gallon spill, still the nation's worst.
Compensatory damages awarded by the jury totaled $287 million. Four times that amount would be $1.148 billion. The $5 billion award was more than 17 times the amount of compensation. The appellate panel also noted that Exxon had paid $2.1 billion to clean up the spill, $1.2 billion to settle suits by state and federal agencies and other private parties, and additional sums that raised its total cost above $3.4 billion -- apart from the current verdict.
The wrongfulness of Exxon's conduct was not so severe that it would justify an extraordinary damage award, the court said.
"As bad as the oil spill was, Exxon did not spill the oil on purpose, and did not kill anyone," wrote Judge Andrew Kleinfeld.
He said the jury was entitled to find that the company acted recklessly: "It knew of the risk of an oil spill in the transportation of huge quantities of oil through the icy waters of Prince William Sound. And it knew (Capt. Joseph) Hazelwood was an alcoholic who was drinking."
"But this goes more to justify punitive damages than to justify punitive damages at so high a level."
Kleinfeld said U.S. District Judge H. Russel Holland must re-evaluate the case in light of the 1996 Supreme Court ruling and another high court decision this year, both of which said punitive damages must bear a reasonable relationship to the harm caused and the wrongfulness of the defendant's conduct.
The 984-foot tanker ran aground on a reef just after midnight on March 24, 1989, polluting more than 1,000 miles of shoreline and killing tens of thousands of birds and marine mammals.
Hazelwood, a dropout from an alcohol rehabilitation program who had been drinking heavily before the voyage, left the bridge and went to his cabin before the accident, leaving the helm to a fatigued third mate.
The $5 billion punitive verdict was a record at the time but has since been eclipsed by a $145 billion Florida verdict against tobacco companies, now on appeal.
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=756
Prince William's Oily Mess: A Tale of Recovery
Lessons Learned From the Exxon Valdez
An omni-boom blasts oil-coated rocks in an attempt to clean gross oil contamination from a beach on LaTouche Island. NOAA biologists have concluded that such techniques may do more harm than good. (Photo credit: Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council)
A NOAA biologist examines freshly excavated live adult clams from heavily oiled beach sediments on Block Island, Prince William
Sound, Alaska. Juvenile clams generally do not survive as well as adults on oiled beaches. (Photo credit: OR&R, NOAA)
The scientists who monitored the oiled parts of Prince William Sound wanted to study the shoreline’s ecological recovery after an environmental disaster like the Exxon Valdez spill, and then use those lessons to better respond to future oil spills. Right now, their task is still incomplete. However, some of their findings have changed the way they think about cleaning up oil spills. Following are some examples of what they have learned:
http://www.oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/stories/oilymess/oily05_lessons.html
Photos of Valdez
http://patrickendres.com/cgi-bin/script.pl?keywords=exxon%20valdez%20oil%20spill%20photos&pagenum=1&op=sidebarsearch
State faces wild weather
28sep05
VICTORIA faces a day of wild weather as a strong cool change sweeps across the state.
The Bureau of Meteorology has issued a severe weather warning for the Western, Wimmera, North Central, Central, Northeast, West Gippsland, South Gippsland and Alpine districts for potentially damaging winds.
Winds would average between 60km/h and 80km/h, with stronger squalls expected.
Severe thunderstorms are expected over the Mallee region, in the state's far north-west, which could produce localised damaging wind gusts and brief periods of heavy rain.
http://www.theadvertiser.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,16748012^1702,00.html
Kenneth continues to move slowly towards islandsd
Tropical storm Kenneth is now about 900 miles east-southeast of Hilo.
It may bring some bad weather to the islands by this weekend.
Kenneth's winds have decreased to 40 to 50 miles-per-hour.
It continues to slowly move towards the islands. It will still be days before it could impact our weather
"What we're expecting--because the atmosphere will be very unstable--we expect a lot of showers, some thunderstorms, and some of these could be very heavy," says Jim Weyman, National Weather Service.
Weyman says it's still too early to predict exactly what Kenneth will do to our island weather, but the heavy rains could lead to possible flooding.
http://khon.com/khon/display.cfm?storyID=7585&sid=1152
Troubling Sings of Climate Change in the Arctic
POINT BARROW, Alaska, Sept. 27, 2005 — This season has ushered in the warmest Arctic summer in 400 years. A NASA report to be released this week finds the polar ice pack has shrunk by nearly 30 percent since 1978, and new satellite photos show the melting is speeding up.
Scientists say the Arctic may be caught in a vicious cycle of global warming. As ice melts, there's less white matter to reflect the sun's heat back into space. The dark ocean absorbs more of the sun's heat and that, in turn, melts more of the ice pack.
ABC News traveled to the northern tip of America – Point Barrow, Alaska – to document the other dramatic effects of global warming.
During the summer, people who live in the region have a practice of storing whale meat in ice cellars dug into the permanently frozen ground. But when whale hunter Eugene Brower took an ABC News crew to see his, he was shocked by what he found.
"The skin and blubber should be frozen!" he said. "It's thawing out."
Typically in the Arctic, any ground deeper than about four feet has always been frozen. But the permafrost is now starting to melt.
At Point Barrow, the northernmost tip of the United States is melting as well.
"The bluff edge was out there by about 150 feet or so just 10 years ago," said scientist Ann Jensen.
Since melting permafrost leaves the ground soft and with far less frozen surface to block the waves, the water carves away at it. Old graves are tumbling into the sea.
"They keep getting exposed," said Jensen. "People don't really want to see their ancestors getting washed into the ocean."
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/Science/story?id=1164442&page=1
Climate Change Now
(CSRwire) LONDON, UK – A new international cross-sector coalition is launching a European education programme offering consumers immediate and lifelong solutions to tackling climate change. Through popular culture initiatives, Climate Change Now seeks to engage the public in reducing their personal carbon dioxide emissions as part of their everyday life. Its first target is to switch 1 million European households to renewable energy by September 2006.
Climate Change Now (CCN) is an independent and non-political initiative set up by two young Europeans: Michael Mathres (30, FRANCE) & Alex Lambie (28, UK). It is supported by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the European Environment Agency, world luminaries such as Mikhail Gorbachev, Chairman, Green Cross International and part of Bill Clinton’s Global Initiative and the EU’s Sustainable Energy Europe Campaign. It has also received the backing of corporations that are committed to combating climate change and empowering consumers to do the same. These include Honda, Hilton International, John Lewis Partnership, Sun Microsystems, and many more.
http://www.csrwire.com/article.cgi/4484.html
Climate change transforms Alaska landscape
ANCHORAGE, Alaska, Sept. 27 : Canadian researchers say lakes and wetlands in Alaska's Kenai Peninsula are drying at a significant rate due to global warming.
In a paper published in the August issue of the Canadian Journal of Forest Research, biologist Eric Klein and colleagues at Alaska Pacific University document a significant landscape shift from wetlands to woodland in the Kenai Peninsula Lowlands.
Klein says the transformation of Alaska's landscape corresponds with an increase in temperatures during the past 100 years.
He compared aerial photos of the Kenai Peninsula taken in 1950 and 1996. Combined with field study and vegetation analysis, he said the research confirms wooded areas increased from 57 percent to 73 percent between 1950 and 1996, while wetland areas decreased from 5 percent to 1 percent.
http://www.newkerala.com/news.php?action=fullnews&id=26682
Global warming and the airline industry
27 Sep 2005 14:49:43 GMT
Sept. 27 (Reuters) - Aircraft taking off from airports in the European Union should join the bloc's emissions trading scheme to cut greenhouse gases that damage the environment, the EU executive Commission proposed on Tuesday.
Here are some facts about the airline industry and its link to global warming:
- Some 16,000 commercial aircraft pump out 600 million tonnes of carbon dioxide every year, consuming some 190 billion litres of jet fuel.
- Aviation causes 3.5 percent of man-made global warming, according to the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change. This could rise to 15 percent by 2050.
- Within Europe the aviation sector produces about 100 million tonnes of carbon dioxide annually. The European Union aims to halve carbon dioxide emissions from aircraft by 2020.
- Jet emissions include carbon dioxide, water vapour and nitrous oxides, at high altitude. Some experts say that flying is more damaging than driving as aircraft pollutants spewed high in the air enter the ozone layer straightaway.
- Jet fuel is not included in the Kyoto protocol on greenhouse gases because of difficulties in allocating emissions between countries.
- The International Air Transport Association (IATA), which groups most of the world's airlines, says aircraft fuel efficiency has improved by 17 percent between 1990 and 2000. It forecasts additional improvement of 10 percent by 2010, resulting in aircraft emissions falling by about 300 million tonnes.
Sources: Reuters; IATA (http://www.iata.org/); U.S. Energy Information Administration (http://www.eia.doe.gov/)
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/B424408.htm
Studies Link Storms to Global Warming
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September 27, 2005 9:31AM
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"There is a growing consensus that ... a warmer ocean should lead to more intense hurricanes," said Nate Mantua, a scientist with the University of Washington's Climate Impacts Group.
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Global warming is increasingly being eyed as the cause of a spike in destructive hurricanes around the world.
Recent studies are building links between climate change and the most lethal tropical hurricanes, including the monstrous Gulf Coast storms -- Katrina and now Rita -- that have forced millions to flee.
"There is a growing consensus that ... a warmer ocean should lead to more intense hurricanes," said Nate Mantua, a scientist with the University of Washington's Climate Impacts Group.
Over the past 30 years, the surface temperature of the oceans has increased by about 0.5 to 1 degree Fahrenheit. During that period, the average annual number of the fiercest hurricanes -- Categories 4 and 5 -- has nearly doubled, according to a new study.
http://www.toptechnews.com/news/Studies-Link-Storms-to-Global-Warming/story.xhtml?story_id=12300CNQK3FL
They are getting there.
Heat, hurricanes and global warming linked?
06:52 PM CDT on Monday, September 26, 2005
By TOM HARRIS / KVUE News
The calendar may say it's almost October, but Mother Nature isn't giving Texas much of a break when it comes to the heat. Could it be tied to global warming?
The official high Sunday was 108 degrees.
Mitch Deville just moved to Austin and so far, he's not impressed with summer.
"I don't know what the answer is I don't know what the problem is ... but I think it's time to move onto winter," he said.
Newcomer Haydee Denis says she can take the heat. She packed up what she could in the middle of the night before Katrina blasted New Orleans, and now she calls Austin home.
"I always thought about coming to Austin, so I just packed up the dogs and packed up my car... I left New Orleans at 4:30 in the morning," she said.
But have hurricane and heat intensities increased? And if so, what has caused the increase? KVUE News asked experts at the University of Texas.
"Whether global warming is responsible for the last two years of warming would be premature to make these links. I think we need to look at a longer time scale," said Dr. Jay Banner, the director of the Environmental Sciences Institute.
Banner does believe global warming is affecting today's weather. He points to two consecutive studies just released -- one from the Journal of Science, the other from the Journal of Nature -- which indicate global warming is increasing the intensity of hurricanes.
"Here is some rigorous analysis of the data over the past 30 years that suggests that there is a connection with the warming of our atmosphere and the intensities of hurricanes," he said.
Experts predict more studies on the possible link between global warming and hurricanes will be done after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated the Gulf Coast.
http://www.kvue.com/news/local/stories/092605kvueglobalwarming-cb.9799f0ca.html
Global warming a reality: Flannery
Monday Sep 26 19:28 AEST
Simple remedies are available to counter one of the world's greatest threats, climate change, according to one of Australia's leading scientists.
Internationally acclaimed paleontologist and controversial conservationist Tim Flannery says the debate about climate change is over, global warming is destroying the world and something must be done about it. Now.
His new book, The Weather Makers, launched in Sydney, paints a bleak picture, but one with a ray of sunny optimism.
Dr Flannery, also the director of the South Australian Museum, says humanity is creating its own weather - releasing thousands of tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere and creating a blanket that traps the planet's heat.
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=64618
Hoffman: So, does global warming get your interest now?
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Sunday, September 25, 2005
Donna Hoffman Guest column
Time for our government to step up and save us from real threat is now
AUSTIN – The horrors of Katrina and Rita make it painfully clear how dependent our communities are on the natural systems around us.
When those systems are out of balance, our safety and security are at risk.
Global warming, more than anything else today, is threatening the natural balance on which we have relied. Katrina, Rita and the future strengthened hurricanes we can expect should serve as our wake-up call to put solutions in place immediately.
Leading scientists, such as Kerry Emanuel of MIT's Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences Department, connect the increased violence of hurricanes to warmer ocean water and other trends caused by global warming.
Emanuel reports, “My results suggest that future warming may lead to an upward trend in [hurricanes'] destructive potential, and – taking into account an increasing coastal population – a substantial increase in hurricane-related losses in the 21st century.”
The consequences of global warming will be felt differently in different regions and will not necessarily be experienced all at once, but the effects have the potential to be incredibly disruptive to people's lives, our economy and our public health.
http://www.wacotrib.com/opin/content/news/opinion/stories/2005/09/25/20050925wachoffman25.html
African scientists to create climate change network
Africa has few climate change scientists, despite being threatened by global warming
Ochieng' Ogodo
26 September 2005
Source: SciDev.Net
[NAIROBI] African researchers and policymakers agreed last week to create a network to boost African earth sciences, including climate science.
The Africa Network in Earth System Science will encourage the sharing of ideas and resources between organisations whose activities include work on climate change, said Eric Odada of the University of Nairobi, one of the organisers of the Kenya meeting where the decision was taken.
Odada told the gathering of scientists, policymakers, representatives of the United Nations Environment Project and possible funders, that Africa lacks long-term, stable intergovernmental support for research into global environmental change.
And unlike Latin America and the Asia-Pacific, he added, Africa has no network of climate scientists despite being highly vulnerable to global warming.
Bob Scholes of South Africa's Council for Scientific and Industrial Research said global climate change scientists were rare in Africa and unevenly distributed across the continent.
http://www.scidev.net/gateways/index.cfm?fuseaction=readitem&rgwid=4&item=News&itemid=2377&language=1
POLITICS PLAYS WHERE IT SHOULD NOT. Global Warming leading to Climate Change is NOT a political issue. It is a matter of survival. There is no democracy with Geophysics.
Storms kick off climate change debate
Washington flouts new studies that find global warming may cause their growing violent nature.
WASHINGTON -- Katrina and Rita have kicked off a debate among scientists over the effect of global climate change on hurricane intensity, but it doesn't appear the environmental issue has grabbed the attention of Washington.
Scientists have been reluctant to cite climate change as the cause for the recent spate of Atlantic hurricanes in light of inconclusive data. But recent studies indicate that the increasingly violent nature of the storms over the past 35 years could be attributed to global warming.
Washington has, to this point, all but ignored the debate on global climate change, although some provisions in the recently passed energy bill promoting alternative energy sources could be seen as a nod in that direction. That same bill, however, includes $13.1 billion in tax breaks for industries that emit greenhouse gases, including $4 billion for the oil industry.
In one of his earliest White House actions, President Bush rejected the Kyoto Protocol, which would limit carbon dioxide production. Bush said that its measures would prove too costly, while maintaining that developing nations should not have been excluded from the early rounds of emissions caps.
Since then, Bush said global warming needs more study. And he recently approved a little-noticed accord with Australia, China, India, Japan and South Korea to combat climate change by shifting to cleaner energy technology.
Congress also hasn't proved eager to address the matter.
Earlier this year, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., introduced the Climate Stewardship Act. The legislation calls for extra scientific research on abrupt climate change and an accelerated reduction of U.S greenhouse gas emissions through a market-driven system. The bill has languished in the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, and is an unlikely candidate for consideration this year.
Polls indicate the public is concerned about environmental issues like global warming, but few consider it a priority. A survey released Sept. 20 by the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions at Duke University found that 79 percent of those questioned favored "stronger national policy to protect our land, air and water." Few cited global warming as a major concern.
http://www.detnews.com/2005/nation/0509/26/A10-327232.htm
Michael Moore Today
JACK CAFFERTY owes Michael Moore an apology. He called him a loser. Jack doesn't seem to understand that Mike spearheads all the reversals of fortune corruption has earned the Bushes over the years. Big Business. Basically, the exploitaiton of Americans. If it weren't for Mike, the news media would not be interested in these topics regardless their truth and we would all be living lives of oppression without hope. Mike is more than hope. He is justice personaified in the democracy that is still alive in the USA.
Mikeis hardly a loser, especially not today. Besides being a marvelously successful documentarian, he attacks the attention of those in this government that believe in the truth. That believe in themselves over a corrupt government. That believe in democracy. Michael has lead us to success in oppressing a global assault on sovereign nations. He has spawned all kinds of initiatives in autonomous economic fronts such as The Traverse City Film Festival which in turns supports film makers. He has promoted a peace movement that has encouraged it's current enthusiasm. He has promoted the Covington Disaster Relief site. Michael Moore is worth his weight in gold. Thanks, Mike. Love you, Buddy.
Tom DeLay is going down, man. He already has today !! Hang in there Mike, it's taken some time for God to let those most corrupt know who is BOSS !
DeLay Indicted in Campaign Finance Probe
By Larry Margasak / Associated Press
A Texas grand jury on Wednesday charged Rep. Tom DeLay and two political associates with conspiracy in a campaign finance scheme, an indictment that could force him to step down as House majority leader.
DeLay attorney Steve Brittain said DeLay was accused of a criminal conspiracy along with two associates, John Colyandro, former executive director of a Texas political action committee formed by DeLay, and Jim Ellis, who heads DeLay's national political committee.
The indictment against the second-ranking, and most assertive Republican leader came on the final day of the grand jury's term. It followed earlier indictments of a state political action committee founded by DeLay and three of his political associates.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4303
Driving Truck
From Eric:
Before Rita hit, we rented a 26' truck and literally packed up Camp Casey-Covington. Tents, coolers, boxes and bags were loaded for transport. The bulk of the volunteers hunkered down at a church in Tylertown, Mississippi while the rest of us headed to Mobile, AL to meet up with a group called S.O.S., Saving Ourselves.
S.O.S. began their hurricane relief operation around the same time as the Veterans for Peace. Their missions are near identical and the organizations share complimentary needs. S.O.S. is allowing VFP to use their warehouse as a staging area and VFP is providing volunteers to help organize the space and distribute food, clothing, cleaning supplies, etc. to those in need. Two houses, right next door to each other, were offered to VFP for housing volunteers. This is where we are now staying.
In the days after Rita hit, I drove the truck almost constantly. We picked up hundreds of sets of bed sheets, pillow cases, silverware sets, other kitchen items, generators, chainsaws and two pallet jacks to roll them off the truck and into the staging facility.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/covington.php?id=39
Why I Was Smiling and Hurricane Rita
...a message from Cindy Sheehan
I had a huge grin on my face when I was getting arrested yesterday. I have received a lot of flak for smiling. Apparently I am not supposed to smile, but I had some really good reasons for doing so.
First of all, I was having fun. I was with a group of good-humored, cheerful, happy people. We were singing old protest songs and old Sunday school songs and clapping. I felt I had to be cheerful to set the tone. We didn't want any trouble or to do anything non-peaceful. Secondly, when I got arrested and the officers lifted me out I was afraid that America would see my underwear and that tickled me.
There is another and more important reason that I was smiling. I had not genuinely smiled since Casey was killed in Iraq. I thought my hope was buried along with my son and I was in a pit of hopeless despair. Camp Casey gave me back my hope because America came out in huge numbers to support us and they raised their voices with ours in unison to take our country back and to hold this administration accountable for the lies and mistakes that are killing tens of thousands of innocent people. There were hundreds of thousands of regular Americans who came out to protest the war and Bush's policies this past Saturday. Hundreds of faithful Americans turned out for our interfaith religious service Sunday night next to the Washington Monument. The so-called religious right doesn't have a monopoly on God. I am so pleased that the people of America are becoming active participants in Democracy and America is ready to put their money where their collective mouths are: to bring our troops home and hold BushCo accountable. It is a wonderful thing to be doing something that makes a difference and it is a wonderful and miraculous thing to have my hope back. That is why I am smiling.
Now about Hurricane Rita: I woke up on Saturday morning filled with excitement. I knew that the rally and march were going to be amazing events and I was thrilled to be a part of them. I switched on the TV and turned on CNN and for 2 hours, I watched one of their reporters in front of the same downed tree and it wasn't even raining. I knew that there was a hurricane and it was damaging. At the point of the news cycle though, I thought CNN could be covering other news. 40 soldiers have been killed this month so far in Iraq and countless Iraqis have been killed. The war is still going on and the news has been dominated by hurricanes and the terrible aftermaths. I actually think the mainstream media has been doing a good job of pointing out the dropped balls in the Gulf States. However, CNN and other mainstream news outlets ALWAYS report other news besides the illegal occupation of Iraq.
When we had hundreds of thousands of people turn out for protests all over the nation on March 19th, the 2nd anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, the Terry Schiavo fiasco was occurring. The Schiavo tragedy was bad for one family and I was in agony for them, but I found it hypocritical that Congress would rush into a special session to save one person's lives when so many were being needlessly killed in Iraq partly because Congress abrogated their Constitutional responsibilities to declare war. I was also disappointed that that tragedy superseded the protest coverage. Wolf Blitzer called our protests: Insignificant.
Saturday was the most important event in peace history in decades. The numbers were underreported and the wonderful energy was unreported by the mainstream media. With the MSM there will always be something more important than covering the atrocity of Iraq: Michael Jackson, Scott Peterson, Terry Schiavo, The Runaway Bride, etc. It is time we hold our media accountable, too. Balanced coverage of all issues and some investigative reporting would be extremely refreshing.
I am sorry for what seemed to be an insensitive remark about the people who were affected by Rita, but that was not my intention. I am very aware that the failed policies of the Bush administration have all put us in the same boat, so to speak, and we need to take responsibility for righting the wrongs here in our country and in Iraq.
I don't think I can be challenged for my analysis of the war and for what I say because it is all the truth and comes from my heart, so I have to be attacked for smiling. I won't apologize for smiling, though, we are making a difference and that is definitely something to smile about!
http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=511
Bush creates a war and we are expected to fund it forever?
I don't think so. If Halliburton has trouble maintaining control they need to hire their own Army!
In addition, we are suppose to endlessly fund it. I really think the capture of Al Qaeda's second in command in Iraq was a little too 'timely' for the further funding of the Iraqi INVASION to not call it PLANNED.
Bush has a war to benefit cronies and keep Cheney out of personal bankruptcy when Halliburton stockholders could have sued him. These planned assaults are as orchestrated as his PR appeearances.
Al Qaeda was not in Iraq before the invasion.
Zarqawi was CROWNED Osama's Lieutenant in Iraq this past year. That was recognition by al Qaeda whom should have never been given the opportunity to be recognized so much as jailed. Bush is creating his own enemy and allowing it to grow in Iraq to INSURE the presence of the USA and it's coalition.
Capturing al Qaeda in Iraq is irrelivant to the opposition fighting by the Iraqis who see the USA as THE PROBLEM and not the solution.
This war is endless.
We don't belong in Iraq.
We never did.
Bush Warns of Upsurge of Violence in Iraq
Deb Reichmann / Associated Press
WASHINGTON - President Bush on Wednesday warned there will be an upsurge in violence in Iraq before next month's voting, but said the terrorists will fail. "Our troops are ready for them," he said.
Bush's remarks in the Rose Garden came a day after Iraqi and U.S. forces announced they had killed Abdullah Abu Azzam, the No. 2 al-Qaida leader in Iraq, during a weekend raid in Baghdad.
"This guy's a brutal killer," Bush said.
Al-Qaida in Iraq issued an Internet statement denying that Abu Azzam was its deputy leader, calling him "one of al-Qaida's many soldiers" and "the leader of one its battalions operating in Baghdad." The U.S.-led coalition, however, called Abu Azzam the mastermind of an escalation in suicide bombings that have killed nearly 700 people in Baghdad since April.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4299
Small, Rural Towns Hit Hardest by Rita
By Michael Graczyk / Associated Press
BEAUMONT, Texas - While much of Texas and Louisiana dodged the worst of Hurricane Rita, the damage to some small, rural towns was virtually complete — and the storm was being blamed for new deaths long after it moved away.
As temperatures climbed well into the 90s and the heat index was near 106 degrees Monday, the damage from the storm was evident in small communities in southwest Louisiana and southeast Texas.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4277
Auditors to Probe Katrina Contracts
By Hope Yen / Associated Press
WASHINGTON -- A day after castigating the federal government's ousted disaster chief, a House panel is hearing pledges from government auditors that they will closely examine millions of dollars in contracts the Bush administration awarded to politically connected companies for Hurricane Katrina relief.
The inspectors general from half a dozen agencies, as well as officials from the Government Accountability Office, on Wednesday were addressing a House subcommittee on the Katrina cleanup and announcing several new audits to combat waste and fraud.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4293
Many Rita Victims Still Wait for Relief
By Abe Levy / Associated Press
PORT ARTHUR, Texas - Nearly four days after Hurricane Rita hit, many of the storm's sweltering victims are still waiting for electricity, gasoline, water and other relief. The situation prompted one top emergency official to complain that people are "living like cavemen."
In the hard-hit refinery towns of Port Arthur and Beaumont, crews struggled to cross debris-clogged streets to deliver generators and water to people stranded by Rita. They predicted it could be a month before power is restored, and said water and sewer systems could not function until more generators arrived.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4295
THEY KEEP GETTING IT "W"RONG. I guess when a political agenda in DC demands a worldwide conversation to USA values and democracy things get pretty desperate when no one else is interested in them. War anyone? If they won't accept it this way then we'll make them accept it. Like I said before, 'Bush wants democracy but never says anything about PEACE.'
Atta known to Pentagon before 9/11
By John Crewdson and Andrew Zajac / Chicago Tribune
WASHINGTON -- Four years after the nation's deadliest terror attack, evidence is accumulating that a super-secret Pentagon intelligence unit identified the organizer of the Sept. 11 hijackings, Mohamed Atta, as an Al Qaeda operative months before he entered the U.S.
The many investigations of Sept. 11, 2001, have turned up a half-dozen instances in which government agencies possessed information that might have led investigators to some part of the terrorist plot, although in most cases not in time to stop it.
But none of those leads likely would have taken them directly to Atta, the Egyptian architecture student who moved to the U.S. from Germany to take flying lessons and later served as Al Qaeda's U.S. field commander for the attacks.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4297
Baghdad Neighborhood's Hopes Dimmed by the Trials of War
Some Who Welcomed Americans Now Scorn Them
By Ellen Knickmeyer / Washington Post
BAGHDAD -- In the chaotic, hopeful April of 2003, Baghdad's Karrada district was one of those neighborhoods where residents showered flowers on U.S. forces entering the capital. Revelers threw water on one another and the Americans, exuding joy at the crushing of a dictatorship that had silenced, tortured and killed their people.
Now, with the end of the third and in many ways hardest summer of the U.S.-led occupation, the lights of Karrada are dimmer. The collapse of Iraq's central power system has left Baghdad averaging less than eight hours of electricity a day.
The crowds on the sidewalks have thinned -- kidnapping and other forms of lawlessness since the invasion mean Baghdad's comparatively liberated women seldom leave home without a good reason.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4280
The Cheney Observer
I already know Iran wants to destroy Israel. It will be Israel that resolves this as there are too many conflict of interests between Europe and Russia and OIL !! Israel should act prudently without rushing into conflict. It needs to be right and just not only effective.
Iran condemns Israeli aggression in Gaza
Palestine-Iran, Politics, 9/27/2005
The Iranian 'Iran' newspaper has condemned the Israeli aggression on the Palestinians in Gaza Strip, asserting that these aggressive acts aimed at ending the Palestinian resistance.
In an article on Monday, the paper called on the Palestinian people to unify their stances in facing the Israeli aggression and to commit themselves to the national resistance as the only way to restore their legitimate rights.
Meanwhile, Commander in Chief of Forces of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, Youhya Rahim Safawei, criticized the American war tendency and preemptive military operations which threaten security in the Middle East region.
He added that the instability in the region increases hatred to the USA and Israel.
http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/050927/2005092712.html
ANALYSIS / INDIA-IRAN TIES
India dumps old friend Iran for US nuclear carrot
By Y P RAJESH
New Delhi _ India's unexpected vote against old friend Iran over its nuclear programme stemmed from eagerness to project itself as a responsible nuclear power and safeguard a landmark atomic energy deal with the United States. Although this will strain traditional ties with Teheran, a key supplier of India's oil and gas, the damage could be offset by the emergence of other energy sources, Indian officials and analysts said.
``India decided that a bird in hand is worth two in the bush,'' Manoj Joshi, editor at the New Delhi-based Hindustan Times newspaper, wrote on Monday.
``While the Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline remains to be negotiated, the Indo-US nuclear agreement is poised delicately in the US Congress,'' he said.
http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/28Sep2005_news23.php
India's vote on Iran significant: US
The United States has termed India's vote in favour of an IAEA resolution on Iran's nuclear programme as "very significant".
"It's very significant to the US that India voted with the majority. That is a blow to Iran's attempt to turn this debate into a developed world versus a developing world debate," Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns said.
"We're very grateful for India's support and it's significant that India is now working very closely with the United States and Europe to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power," he said.
Burns said Iran was now isolated and it should suspend its nuclear activities and return to the negotiations with the European Union.
"We have a long-term strategy to isolate Iran on this question, to ratchet up the international pressure on Iran. It is to assemble a growing international coalition against it, as we've done with North Korea," he said.
http://www.ndtv.com/template/template.asp?category=National&template=Irannukes&slug=India
India's backing of IAEA resolution against Iran is a signal of the end of nonaligned movement
When India decided to side with United States and Europeans against Iran and vote accordingly in the IAEA resolution, the world got a very interesting signal. It spelled the end of non-aligned movement that India championed when India called itself a developing country.
Today things have changed. India looks for outsourcing dollars, nuclear energy cooperation, missile shields against China and Pakistan from America. India has silently moved into the American block while maintaining close relationship with Russia. India has also very shrewdly improved relations with China.
http://www.indiadaily.com/editorial/4779.asp
PM to brief Left parties on Iran
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POLITICAL BUREAU
Posted online: Wednesday, September 28, 2005 at 0000 hours IST
NEW DELHI, SEP 27: With domestic concerns failing to be allayed on India’s stand on Iran and the decision to vote in favour of the IAEA resolution against its controversial nuclear programme, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh himself has been forced to step in for damage control.
Mr Singh will be meeting Left leaders on Wednesday morning to dispel their apprehensions and explain why his government decided to side with the US and the EU-3 in Vienna last week while voting on the resolution that imposes critical curbs on Iran’s nuclear programme. Those who will be meeting the Prime Minister include CPI general secretary AB Bardhan, D Raja and CPI-M Rajya Sabhs Sitaram Yechury.
The Left parties had strongly opposed New Delhi’s decision last Saturday. The CPI-M had said the decision pointed to a compromise by India of its non-alignment policy. The CPI, on the other hand said, the government supported the US-EU resolution because of the recently signed nuclear deal with the US.
http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=103853
Iran May Downgrade Ties With Backers of UN Resolution (Update2)
Sept. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Iran, holder of the world's second- largest reserves of oil and gas, may downgrade its trade ties with countries that backed a United Nations resolution condemning the Islamic Republic's nuclear program, Hamid Reza Asefi, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry said.
Twenty-two countries, including the U.K., France, Germany, Japan and India, voted in favor of referring Iran's nuclear program to the UN Security Council. China, Brazil and Russia led a group of 12 counties that abstained from the vote, while Venezuela opposed the referral.
``We will reconsider our economic ties with all the 21 countries that have acted in this regard rather hostilely,'' Asefi told reporters at Iran's foreign ministry building in central Tehran today. He excluded the U.S. from the count since the U.S. cut diplomatic relations with Iran in 1979, and bars its companies from investing in Iran.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000101&sid=aYckfkOx4fO4&refer=japan
‘We helped Iran buy time’
DH News Service New Delhi:
Since certain points in the resolution were in favour of Iran, it was not right for India to abstain from voting, Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran has maintained.
Faced with strong criticism from the Left and BJP on India voting against Iran’s interest at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) meeting in Vienna, the Centre on Monday clarified that India actually helped Iran buy time for “negotiations and consultations” thereby avoiding a major diplomatic crisis.
“India was successful in conceding EU-3 (comprising Britain, France and Germany) on two major counts to reduce confrontation. We believe the current situation is not a threat to international peace and security and there is significant time for negotiation. Our objective is helpful to Iran,” Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran said after his return from the US.
http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/sep272005/index201742005926.asp>
Cong hits back at critics on Iran issue
From Utpal Borpujari DH News Service New Delhi:
AICC spokesman Anand Sharma said the opponents of India’s stand have no ‘adequate’ understanding of the Iran issue.
Facing criticism from both the Left and BJP, Congress on Monday strongly defended India’s stance at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) vis-a-vis Iran, and rejected allegations that New Delhi had compromised its position to placate the United States.
Accusing the critics of not having “adequate” understanding of the issue involved, AICC spokesman Anand Sharma said, “India has taken a very constructive and positive position at IAEA and there is no departure from the fundamental and stated position.”
“We are very much satisfied that India has engaged EU-3, making them aware of India’s concerns and reservations which were brought on board through amendments. It ensures that this matter remains with IAEA until the next board meeting in November so that Iran’s legitimate position is also served,” Mr Sharma said.
http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/sep272005/national153152005926.asp
Women's games in Iran pose
DPA , TEHRAN
Tuesday, Sep 27, 2005,Page 9
Women in Iran have to cover body contours and hair with long gowns and scarves so that they are properly covered in front of "strange men" in public. The restrictions make it impossible for Iranian sportswomen to attend international competitions.
In order to tackle this problem, women's activist and head of the Women's Sports Federation Faezeh Hashemi arranges games for Moslem women in which they can compete internationally without being watched by a male audience and television cameras.
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2005/09/27/2003273432
China supports solution to Iran-EU nuclear dispute within IAEA framework
China supports a proper solution to the Iranian nuclear issue through negotiation and cooperation within the framework of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a Chinese official said Monday at the 49th IAEA general conference in Vienna.
China has always supported a solution to the Iranian nuclear issue within the framework of the IAEA, as such a solution is conducive to regional peace and stability and in line with the interests of parties concerned, said Zhang Huazhu, head of the Chinese delegation to the conference.
China supports and encourages Iran and the European Union (EU) to continue talks to seek a long-term solution to their nuclear dispute and calls for maximum sincerity and concrete measures from both sides to break the stalemate and resume their nuclear talks, he said.
On the nuclear issue of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Zhang said the six-party talks in Beijing have achieved substantial fruits.
http://english.people.com.cn/200509/27/eng20050927_211170.html
Iran oppn criticises nuclear policies
27 September 2005
TEHERAN — Iran’s reformist opposition criticised the nation’s nuclear policies as it may bring Iran before the United Nations Security Council and lead to sanctions, ILNA news agency reported yesterday.
The spokesman for the MJM faction, Rassoul Montakhabnia, told ILNA President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s government had made a “political mistake” by skipping the Europeans in favour of members of the Non-Aligned Movement.
The new Iranian administration has decided to increase nuclear negotiations with the NAM member states as well as Russia and China and sever talks with the European Union trio Britain, France and Germany, the main negotiating partners in the last two years.
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2005/September/middleeast_September762.xml§ion=middleeast&col=
Eritrean: Jailed Trade Unionists: Latest
Posted on Monday, September 26 @ 19:19:26 BST by mark
Anonymous writes "International Unions Lodge ILO Complaint to Free Trade Union Leaders Held in Eritrean Secret Prison/Further Action Planned
26-Sep-2005
The international trade union movement today stepped up the pressure on the Eritrean government to obtain the release of three trade union leaders held without charge in a secret prison in Asmara.
The IUF, ICFTU and ITGLWF today filed a formal complaint against the Eritrean Government with the UN’s International Labour Organisation (ILO). The complaint, jointly filed before the ILO’s Committee on Freedom of Association says that Eritrea is in violation of ILO Conventions by imprisoning trade unionists Tewelde Ghebremedhin, Minase Andezion and Habtom Weldemicael.
In addition, the three internationals vowed to use “all available means” in order to secure the rapid release of the union leaders.
http://www.nosweat.org.uk/article.php?sid=1391&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
DeLay probe winds down; charges may loom
LARRY MARGASAK
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - A Texas grand jury's recent interest in conspiracy charges could lead to last-minute criminal indictments - possibly against House Majority Leader Tom DeLay - as it wraps up its investigation Wednesday into DeLay's state political organization, according to lawyers with knowledge of the case.
Conspiracy counts against two DeLay associates this month raised concerns with DeLay's lawyers, who fear the chances are greater that the majority leader could be charged with being part of the conspiracy. Before these counts, the investigation was more narrowly focused on the state election code.
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/news/breaking_news/12756935.htm
Scientist: MRIs can serve as lie detectors
Associated Press
CHARLESTON, S.C. - A scientist at the Medical University of South Carolina has found that magnetic resonance imaging machines also can serve as lie detectors.
The study found MRI machines, which are used to take images of the brain, are more than 90 percent accurate at detecting deception, said Dr. Mark George, a distinguished professor of psychiatry, radiology and neurosciences.
That compares with polygraphs that range from 80 percent to "no better than chance" at finding the truth, George said.
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/news/breaking_news/12757000.htm
Gov't: Effect of greenhouse gases rising
RANDOLPH E. SCHMID
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - The effect of greenhouse gases on the Earth's atmosphere has increased 20 percent since 1990, a new government index says.
The Annual Greenhouse Gas Index was released Tuesday by the Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory in Boulder, Colo.
Greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide accumulate in the atmosphere as a result of industrial and other processes. They can help trap solar heat, somewhat like a greenhouse, resulting in a gradual warming of the Earth's atmosphere.
The Earth's average temperature increased about 1 degree Fahrenheit during the 20th century. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns that continuing increases could have serious effects on crops, glaciers, the spread of disease, rising sea levels and other changes.
In its new analysis the laboratory, a branch of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, compares the amounts of carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and chlorofluorocarbons in the air. Those gases have been sampled for many years.
The index was set to a reading of 1 as of 1990 and the lab said it is currently 1.20, indicating an increase of 20 percent.
"The AGGI will serve as a gauge of success or failure of future efforts to curb carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas increases in the atmosphere both by natural and human-engineered processes," said David Hofmann, CMDL director.
The index is expected to be updated each April.
"This index provides us with a valuable benchmark for tracking the composition of the atmosphere as we seek to better understand the dynamics of Earth's climate," said NOAA Administrator Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Jr.
In the current reading, for every million air molecules there are about 375 carbon dioxide molecules, two are methane and less than one is a nitrous oxide molecule. The CFC's make up less than one molecule in a billion in the atmosphere but play a role in regulating Earth's climate and are a key factor in the depletion of the protective ozone layer, NOAA researchers say.
The gases produce an effect known as radiative forcing. It is a shift in the balance between solar radiation coming into the atmosphere and Earth's radiation going out. Radiative forcing, as measured by the index, is calculated from the atmospheric concentration of each contributing gas and the per-molecule climate forcing of each gas.
The lab said most of the increase measured since 1990 is due to carbon dioxide, which now accounts for about 62 percent of the radiative forcing by all long-lived greenhouse gases.
NOAA said the 1990 baseline was chosen because greenhouse gas emissions targeted by the international Kyoto Protocol also are indexed to 1990.
ON THE NET
NOAA Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Lab: http://www.cmdl.noaa.gov/
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/news/breaking_news/12756958.htm
Politician working to stop some homeless from voting
12:15 PM EDT on Tuesday, September 27, 2005
By ANN SHERIDAN / 6NEWS
Commissioner Bill James wants to stop homeless voters who have listed the Urban Ministry Center as their address from casting a ballot.
A local lawmaker who is no stranger to controversy is working to stop some homeless voters from casting a ballot in future elections.
The issue centers on if those homeless people can legally call a shelter their home for the purpose of voting. Politician Bill James said that practice is not traditional or legal and he’s started a controversy that is going all the way to the state board of elections.
http://www.wcnc.com/news/local/stories/wcnc-092705-homeless_vote.9a4248c9.html
Bush may tap oil reserve
WASHINGTON Sep 26, 2005 — President Bush urged Americans on Monday to cut back on unnecessary travel to make up for fuel shortages caused by Hurricane Rita as he prepared to take his seventh trip to the Gulf Coast.
Bush said the government was ready to release fuel from its emergency oil stockpile to alleviate high prices. And he suggested he would name a federal official to oversee the reconstruction of the Gulf Coast after local officials first produce a vision for their rebuilt communities.
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=1161668
World Petroleum Congress opens in South Africa
Johannesburg, Sept 26 Days after Hurricane Katrina and Rita hit US Gulf Coasts and forced several oil refineries there to shut down, global experts are meeting here to find ways to avoid similar future threats and discuss solutions to solve problems currently affecting oil industry. Three years after it sessioned in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, the World Petroleum Congress opened in Johannesburg, South Africa. It will extend till September 29.
“Solutions had to be found around refineries especially after Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast as this resulted in many closing down,” president of the World Petroleum Council, Eivald Roren suggested.
Though there is enough crude oil supply, storage and stock, bottlenecks in refineries are really a problem, he said.
Concerns over the spiking of oil prices top the meeting’s agenda and discussions will also focus on global warming and climate change, solutions for affordable energy and sustainable alternative fuels. The WPC is an international, unbiased, non-political body that provides a forum for discussing issues facing the oil and gas industry.
—Kyodo
http://www.financialexpress.com/print.php?content_id=103755
Mbeki Hopes Petroleum Congress Will Bring Good News to People
BuaNews (Tshwane)
September 26, 2005
Posted to the web September 26, 2005
Zibonele Ntuli
President Thabo Mbeki hopes that the 18th World Petroleum Congress taking place in Johannesburg will bring good news to people throughout the world.
Speaking at the opening of the congress last night, Mr Mbeki said the energy sector was central to global economic and social development.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200509260475.html
Rebuild a self-sustaining Gulf Coast
Editorials
The rush to bring relief to our hurricane-battered Gulf Coast is pumping in billions of dollars worth of contracts, many of them no-bid. Some familiar, politically connected giant corporations such as Halliburton, Fluor and Bechtel already are players there.
Louisiana alone is asking for $250 billion in recovery funds. The numbers are breathtaking, and members of Congress have begun thrashing out where to find the funds.
With so much money at stake and so much haste, the potential for fraud and waste is enormous, and even worse is the clear risk of not rebuilding smarter.
Federal agencies such as FEMA and the Army Corps of Engineers need to help Gulf Coast states rebuild not only their infrastructure but also their economies. A sure, but not always fastest, way to do so is to hire competent local contractors and workers to help with the rebuilding.
FEMA already is buying up thousands of mobile homes and RVs to supply temporary housing to those displaced. Along hurricane-ravaged coasts, such "temporary" shelter has a history of becoming quasi-permanent. Federal, state and local officials need to do some quick and ongoing soul-searching about the kinds of communities this partly politics-driven recovery effort is creating. Mobile home parks would be a poor replacement for some of the historic structures that were lost to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Members of Congress need to be particularly vigilant, in the midst of such an outpouring of national sympathy, against unscrupulous politicians taking advantage of the disaster to push their own district pork projects or reward big campaign-contributors. Critics question contracting with giant corporations such as Halliburton, Bechtel and Fluor not only because of their White House ties - Vice President Dick Cheney was a Halliburton CEO - but also because of past overcharging, safety violations or oversight failures either in Iraq or in projects here at home.
The Gulf Coast most certainly will rise again, but officials need to keep a steady, unhurried eye on the prize of rebuilding a safer, more self-sustaining New Orleans and parts beyond.
http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050927/EDIT01/509270302/1020/EDIT
Will the Bush White House ever be held responsible for the fraud regarding the invasion of Iraq?
BLOG Posted 01/13/2005 @ 11:43am
WMD Hunt Ends; Bush's Spin Goes On
When White House spokesman Scott McClellan opened up his daily press briefing yesterday, he said, "This will be the only question of the briefing." He was joking. But it turned out that the first question--a response to the news the Iraq Survey Group had ended its hunt for weapons of mass destruction after finding absolutely nothing--was practically the only question of the day. Here's that first query:
The fact that the Iraq Survey Group has now folded up its field operations, can you explain to us if there is any sense of embarrassment or lack of comfort about the fact that after two years of looking, these people found nothing that the President and others assured us they would find?
McClellan did the usual. He did not answer the query.
McClellan: I think the President already talked about this last October in response to the comprehensive report that was released by Charles Duelfer [the Iraq Survey Group chief] at that point. Charles Duelfer came to the White House in December; the President took that opportunity to thank him for all the work that he had done. The two discussed how Saddam Hussein's regime retained the intent and capability to produce weapons of mass destruction, and they also discussed how he was systematically gaming the system to undermine the sanctions that were in place, so that once those sanctions were eliminated -- which was something he was trying to do through the U.N. oil-for-food program -- then he could begin his weapons programs once again. And I think the President talked about the other issues back in October. Nothing has changed from that time period.
And nothing has changed in terms of the White House's response to the absence of WMDs. Bush refuses to address the consequences of having misled the nation and the world. Before the war, he stated that there was "no doubt" that Iraq was loaded to the gills with WMDs. It was Saddam Hussein's possession of these deadly weapons, Bush argued, that rendered him a "direct" threat that had to be neutralized immediately. Bush and his aides repeatedly asserted there was no if about Iraq's WMDs. The International Atomic Energy Agency reported it had found no evidence of a revived nuclear weapons program in Iraq, yet Bush and Dick Cheney insisted Hussein had reconstituted such a program. The UN's chief weapons inspector, Hans Blix, said he was concerned about the possibility that Iraq might have kept WMDs hidden from inspectors, but he also stated that discrepancies in Iraq's accounting of its previous WMD material did not mean that Iraq actually possessed such dangerous goods.
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/capitalgames?bid=3&pid=2123
Flashback !!!
The devastation of Iraq
By Dahr Jamail
The devastation of Iraq? Where do I start? After working seven of the past 12 months in Iraq, I'm still overwhelmed by even the thought of trying to describe this.
The illegal war and occupation of Iraq was waged for three reasons, according to the administration of US President George W Bush. First for weapons of mass destruction, which have yet to be found. Second, because the regime of Saddam Hussein had links to al-Qaeda, which Bush has personally admitted have never been proved. The third reason - embedded in the very name of the invasion, Operation Iraqi Freedom - was to liberate the Iraqi people.
So Iraq is now a liberated country.
I've been in liberated Baghdad and environs on and off for 12 months, including being inside Fallujah during the April siege and having warning shots fired over my head more than once by soldiers. I've traveled in the south, in the north, and extensively around central Iraq. What I saw in the first months of 2004, however, when it was easier for a foreign reporter to travel the country, offered a powerful - even predictive - taste of the horrors to come in the rest of the year (and undoubtedly in 2005 as well). It's worth returning to the now-forgotten first half of last year and remembering just how terrible things were for Iraqis even relatively early in our occupation of their country.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/GA11Ak01.html
Sudan peace paves way for oil deals
By Orla Ryan
BBC News business reporter
Rebel leader John Garang has secured a deal
The signing of a peace deal in Sudan last weekend has reignited interest in the country's vast oil reserves.
Little exploration took place during the two-decade long war.
Sudan, which already produces 320,000 barrels of oil a day, has proven reserves of 635 million barrels.
Current figures barely register when compared to producers such as Nigeria and Saudi Arabia - but if the peace deal remains intact and exploration yields results, Sudan could emerge as a major oil player within the next five to ten years.
In the rush for Sudanese oil, Asian companies appear to have got a head start.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4165979.stm
Trade deficit notches new high; dollar sinks
BY JOHN O’NEIL THE NEW YORK TIMES
Posted on Thursday, January 13, 2005
The U.S. trade deficit hit an all-time high of $60.3 billion in November as American appetites for foreign oil and even imported food reached record levels, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday.
The Bush administration urged other countries to help fix the problem, but analysts said the yawning deficit won’t be so easily solved.
The dollar fell sharply after the news, losing ground against the British pound, the euro, the yen and other currencies.
The Commerce Department reported that the shortfall between what the United States sells abroad and what it imports increased 7.7 percent from the previous record — the October deficit of $56 billion.
The new figures showed U.S. exports falling 2.3 percent in November, to $95.6 billion, while imports rose 1.3 percent, to $155.8 billion. The deficit in goods was $64.1 billion, up from $60.1 billion in October, while the country continued to run a small surplus in services — $3.8 billion, down from $4.1 billion the month before.
Treasury Secretary John Snow said the trade gap is a result of foreign countries not growing fast enough to stimulate demand that would help boost U.S. exports. "We want to create more engines of world growth," Snow said, contending that Europe and Japan need to do more to stimulate growth.
Economists agreed that the figures reflected a low level of demand overseas, but pointed as well to a continued willingness by American consumers to buy imports even as a weakening dollar is nudging their prices up. "These numbers are not good," said Drew Matus, the senior economist for Lehman Brothers. "They suggest that a lot of the pickup in consumer spending we saw was unfortunately not benefiting domestic producers but rather trickling out to economies elsewhere in the world."
Mark Vitner, senior economist at Wachovia, said that he was not surprised by the figure, which he said reflected changes in currency values more than changes in actual exchanges of goods.
The dollar’s fall has made imports more expensive, but not by enough to slow down their sales or to lead to a resurgence of domestic manufacturing, he said. "We’ve seen a tremendous increase in the price of imports from Canada, Europe and Japan," he said.
Those three areas represented the largest increases in the trade imbalance, according to Commerce Department figures. The deficit with Canada widened from $5.7 billion in October to $7.3 billion in November, and the gap with Japan went from $5.9 billion to $7.3 billion. The deficit with the European Union went from $9.3 billion to $10.5 billion.
The nation’s largest trade imbalance by far, though, remained with China, and while November saw a slight improvement — to $16.6 billion, from $16.8 billion in October — the gap remains worrisome.
Commerce Secretary Donald L. Evans, in Beijing on a mission to persuade China to take steps to address the imbalance, warned in a speech Wednesday that the deficit is fueling tensions between the two countries. "When China’s leaders fail to produce results on the points of friction in our trading relationship, their failure only empowers those critics within the U.S. political system," Evans said.
A report issued on Tuesday by a congressionally appointed panel said that without the trade deficit with China, the United States would have 1.5 million more jobs than it does today.
China, meanwhile, said Tuesday that its overall trade surplus rose to a record $11.1 billion in December.
China has pegged its currency, the yuan, to the dollar, meaning that the dollar’s fall has not raised the price of Chinese goods. Officials in Washington have lobbied China to let its currency value be set by the market — in which case it would quickly appreciate.
In late New York trading on Wednesday, the euro was quoted at $1.3271, up from Tuesday’s rate of $1.3123. The U.S. currency also lost heavily against the British pound, which jumped to $1.8914 from $1.8776. Information for this article was contributed by Martin Crutsinger of The Associated Press and Bloomberg News.
continued ...
http://www.nwanews.com/story.php?paper=adg§ion=Business&storyid=104778
continued …
Gov't: Effect of greenhouse gases rising
RANDOLPH E. SCHMID
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - The effect of greenhouse gases on the Earth's atmosphere has increased 20 percent since 1990, a new government index says.
The Annual Greenhouse Gas Index was released Tuesday by the Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory in Boulder, Colo.
Greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide accumulate in the atmosphere as a result of industrial and other processes. They can help trap solar heat, somewhat like a greenhouse, resulting in a gradual warming of the Earth's atmosphere.
The Earth's average temperature increased about 1 degree Fahrenheit during the 20th century. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns that continuing increases could have serious effects on crops, glaciers, the spread of disease, rising sea levels and other changes.
In its new analysis the laboratory, a branch of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, compares the amounts of carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and chlorofluorocarbons in the air. Those gases have been sampled for many years.
The index was set to a reading of 1 as of 1990 and the lab said it is currently 1.20, indicating an increase of 20 percent.
"The AGGI will serve as a gauge of success or failure of future efforts to curb carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas increases in the atmosphere both by natural and human-engineered processes," said David Hofmann, CMDL director.
The index is expected to be updated each April.
"This index provides us with a valuable benchmark for tracking the composition of the atmosphere as we seek to better understand the dynamics of Earth's climate," said NOAA Administrator Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Jr.
In the current reading, for every million air molecules there are about 375 carbon dioxide molecules, two are methane and less than one is a nitrous oxide molecule. The CFC's make up less than one molecule in a billion in the atmosphere but play a role in regulating Earth's climate and are a key factor in the depletion of the protective ozone layer, NOAA researchers say.
The gases produce an effect known as radiative forcing. It is a shift in the balance between solar radiation coming into the atmosphere and Earth's radiation going out. Radiative forcing, as measured by the index, is calculated from the atmospheric concentration of each contributing gas and the per-molecule climate forcing of each gas.
The lab said most of the increase measured since 1990 is due to carbon dioxide, which now accounts for about 62 percent of the radiative forcing by all long-lived greenhouse gases.
NOAA said the 1990 baseline was chosen because greenhouse gas emissions targeted by the international Kyoto Protocol also are indexed to 1990.
ON THE NET
NOAA Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Lab: http://www.cmdl.noaa.gov/
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/news/breaking_news/12756958.htm
Developing regional solutions to global warming's challenge
By William Ruckelshaus and K.C. Golden
Special to The Times
Guest columnists
The facts about global warming are becoming clear. We don't know everything about it, but we know it is happening. We know human activities, primarily burning fossil fuels, are very probably the dominant cause. We know it is likely to disrupt our economic and environmental systems if we don't change course.
This is the judgment of one of the most exhaustively peer-reviewed scientific collaborations in history, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
We also know that practical solutions are available — solutions like efficient cars and buildings that save money and reduce fossil-fuel dependence. We know that responsible public policies can limit emissions and encourage investment in clean energy. In other words, we know that we must and can act.
Global warming is a local and regional issue. University of Washington climate scientists project that we are on course to lose 50 to 70 percent of the Cascade snowpack by the 2050s. Snowpack is the water-storage system for the hydroelectricity that powers our economy and the irrigation that makes agriculture possible. Without it, we would lose a major source of our prosperity, and much of our salmon habitat.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2002149362_ruckelshaus13.html
An unnatural disaster
Contributed by: Wraun
· Global warming to kill off 1m species
· Scientists shocked by results of research
· 1 in 10 animals and plants extinct by 2050
Climate change over the next 50 years is expected to drive a quarter of land animals and plants into extinction, according to the first comprehensive study into the effect of higher temperatures on the natural world.
The sheer scale of the disaster facing the planet shocked those involved in the research. They estimate that more than 1 million species will be lost by 2050.
The results are described as "terrifying" by Chris Thomas, professor of conservation biology at Leeds University, who is lead author of the research from four continents published today in the magazine Nature.
http://www.vivelecanada.ca/article.php/20050113072352858
Australia and China Partner to Address Global Warming
CANBERRA, Australia, September 6, 2005 (ENS) - The Australian government is encouraging corporations to enter the Chinese renewable energy market under more than A$1 million dollars worth of new projects announced Monday by Environment Minister Senator Ian Campbell.
Four new joint projects between Australia and China have been formally agreed under Australia’s Bilateral Climate Change Partnerships Programme.
Australian Environment Minister Senator Ian Campbell (Photo courtesy Office of the Minister)
“These projects are particularly important, given that China is the world’s second largest emitter of greenhouse gases, and is predicted to become the largest emitter within 20 years,” Senator Campbell said.
The funding annoucement was timed to coincide with the 21st Century Forum for China being held in Beijing this week.
President of the Australian Conservation Foundation Professor Ian Lowe, today encouraged China to embrace renewable energy and energy efficiency and reject the myth that nuclear power is a clean alternative to coal.
"China's dream of modernization can be based on a new approach to energy," Professor Lowe said in an address this morning to a sustainable development conference in Beijing, that he is attending at the invitation of the Chinese government.
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/sep2005/2005-09-06-05.asp
Siberia's rapid thaw causes alarm
The whole western Siberian sub-Arctic region has started to thaw
The world's largest frozen peat bog is melting, which could speed the rate of global warming, New Scientist reports.
The huge expanse of western Siberia is thawing for the first time since its formation, 11,000 years ago.
The area, which is the size of France and Germany combined, could release billions of tonnes of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
This could potentially act as a tipping point, causing global warming to snowball, scientists fear.
The situation is an "ecological landslide that is probably irreversible and is undoubtedly connected to climatic warming," researcher Sergei Kirpotin, of Tomsk State University, Russia, told New Scientist magazine.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4141348.stm
The Ilulissat glacier, a wonder of the world melting away
The Ilulissat glacier in Greenland, a UN heritage site considered one of the wonders of the world, has shrunk by over 10 kilometers in just a few years, in one of the most alarming examples of global warming in the Arctic region.
"We are witnesses to one of the most striking examples of climate change in the Arctic," US expert Robert Corell said during a recent helicopter flight over the glacier.
The lower extremity of the glacier "has receded by more than 10 kilometers (six miles) in two or three years after having been relatively stable since the 1960s," he said.
Corell was in charge of the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment, a 1,400-page report written by more than 250 scientists and published in November 2004 which sounded alarm bells for the region.
The report warned that less than a century from now, the Arctic ice could melt completely during the summer, threatening many species and the lifestyle of the indigenous Inuit population.
Corell, a senior fellow with the American Meteorological Society in Washington D.C., took 22 environment ministers and other officials from around the world, meeting in Ilulissat last week for a conference on global warming, on a tour of the glacier to see the effects first-hand.
"We can't find any more concrete example of Arctic warming, which is twice as fast as in any other part of the world," Corell told AFP.
http://physorg.com/news5944.html
USA: Court Throws Out Exxon Valdez Fine
$5 Billion Too Much, Appeals Court Says
by Bob Egelko, San Francisco Chronicle
November 7th, 2001
A jury's $5 billion punitive damage award for the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill was too high compared to the damage caused and the sums the company already has spent for cleanup and compensation, a federal appeals court ruled today.
A three-judge U.S. Court of Appeals panel in San Francisco rejected Exxon Mobil Corp.'s attempt to throw out the entire punitive damage verdict -- saying it was justified by the knowing employment of an alcoholic captain -- but ordered a federal judge in Alaska to reduce the award.
The court did not specify the proper amount, but noted that the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled in another case in 1996, two years after the Exxon Valdez trial, that punitive damages four times as high as the amount of compensation awarded were "close to the line" allowed by the Constitution.
The suit was filed by commercial fishers, property owners and others harmed by the 11-million-gallon spill, still the nation's worst.
Compensatory damages awarded by the jury totaled $287 million. Four times that amount would be $1.148 billion. The $5 billion award was more than 17 times the amount of compensation. The appellate panel also noted that Exxon had paid $2.1 billion to clean up the spill, $1.2 billion to settle suits by state and federal agencies and other private parties, and additional sums that raised its total cost above $3.4 billion -- apart from the current verdict.
The wrongfulness of Exxon's conduct was not so severe that it would justify an extraordinary damage award, the court said.
"As bad as the oil spill was, Exxon did not spill the oil on purpose, and did not kill anyone," wrote Judge Andrew Kleinfeld.
He said the jury was entitled to find that the company acted recklessly: "It knew of the risk of an oil spill in the transportation of huge quantities of oil through the icy waters of Prince William Sound. And it knew (Capt. Joseph) Hazelwood was an alcoholic who was drinking."
"But this goes more to justify punitive damages than to justify punitive damages at so high a level."
Kleinfeld said U.S. District Judge H. Russel Holland must re-evaluate the case in light of the 1996 Supreme Court ruling and another high court decision this year, both of which said punitive damages must bear a reasonable relationship to the harm caused and the wrongfulness of the defendant's conduct.
The 984-foot tanker ran aground on a reef just after midnight on March 24, 1989, polluting more than 1,000 miles of shoreline and killing tens of thousands of birds and marine mammals.
Hazelwood, a dropout from an alcohol rehabilitation program who had been drinking heavily before the voyage, left the bridge and went to his cabin before the accident, leaving the helm to a fatigued third mate.
The $5 billion punitive verdict was a record at the time but has since been eclipsed by a $145 billion Florida verdict against tobacco companies, now on appeal.
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=756
Prince William's Oily Mess: A Tale of Recovery
Lessons Learned From the Exxon Valdez
An omni-boom blasts oil-coated rocks in an attempt to clean gross oil contamination from a beach on LaTouche Island. NOAA biologists have concluded that such techniques may do more harm than good. (Photo credit: Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council)
A NOAA biologist examines freshly excavated live adult clams from heavily oiled beach sediments on Block Island, Prince William
Sound, Alaska. Juvenile clams generally do not survive as well as adults on oiled beaches. (Photo credit: OR&R, NOAA)
The scientists who monitored the oiled parts of Prince William Sound wanted to study the shoreline’s ecological recovery after an environmental disaster like the Exxon Valdez spill, and then use those lessons to better respond to future oil spills. Right now, their task is still incomplete. However, some of their findings have changed the way they think about cleaning up oil spills. Following are some examples of what they have learned:
http://www.oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/stories/oilymess/oily05_lessons.html
Photos of Valdez
http://patrickendres.com/cgi-bin/script.pl?keywords=exxon%20valdez%20oil%20spill%20photos&pagenum=1&op=sidebarsearch
State faces wild weather
28sep05
VICTORIA faces a day of wild weather as a strong cool change sweeps across the state.
The Bureau of Meteorology has issued a severe weather warning for the Western, Wimmera, North Central, Central, Northeast, West Gippsland, South Gippsland and Alpine districts for potentially damaging winds.
Winds would average between 60km/h and 80km/h, with stronger squalls expected.
Severe thunderstorms are expected over the Mallee region, in the state's far north-west, which could produce localised damaging wind gusts and brief periods of heavy rain.
http://www.theadvertiser.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,16748012^1702,00.html
Kenneth continues to move slowly towards islandsd
Tropical storm Kenneth is now about 900 miles east-southeast of Hilo.
It may bring some bad weather to the islands by this weekend.
Kenneth's winds have decreased to 40 to 50 miles-per-hour.
It continues to slowly move towards the islands. It will still be days before it could impact our weather
"What we're expecting--because the atmosphere will be very unstable--we expect a lot of showers, some thunderstorms, and some of these could be very heavy," says Jim Weyman, National Weather Service.
Weyman says it's still too early to predict exactly what Kenneth will do to our island weather, but the heavy rains could lead to possible flooding.
http://khon.com/khon/display.cfm?storyID=7585&sid=1152
Troubling Sings of Climate Change in the Arctic
POINT BARROW, Alaska, Sept. 27, 2005 — This season has ushered in the warmest Arctic summer in 400 years. A NASA report to be released this week finds the polar ice pack has shrunk by nearly 30 percent since 1978, and new satellite photos show the melting is speeding up.
Scientists say the Arctic may be caught in a vicious cycle of global warming. As ice melts, there's less white matter to reflect the sun's heat back into space. The dark ocean absorbs more of the sun's heat and that, in turn, melts more of the ice pack.
ABC News traveled to the northern tip of America – Point Barrow, Alaska – to document the other dramatic effects of global warming.
During the summer, people who live in the region have a practice of storing whale meat in ice cellars dug into the permanently frozen ground. But when whale hunter Eugene Brower took an ABC News crew to see his, he was shocked by what he found.
"The skin and blubber should be frozen!" he said. "It's thawing out."
Typically in the Arctic, any ground deeper than about four feet has always been frozen. But the permafrost is now starting to melt.
At Point Barrow, the northernmost tip of the United States is melting as well.
"The bluff edge was out there by about 150 feet or so just 10 years ago," said scientist Ann Jensen.
Since melting permafrost leaves the ground soft and with far less frozen surface to block the waves, the water carves away at it. Old graves are tumbling into the sea.
"They keep getting exposed," said Jensen. "People don't really want to see their ancestors getting washed into the ocean."
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/Science/story?id=1164442&page=1
Climate Change Now
(CSRwire) LONDON, UK – A new international cross-sector coalition is launching a European education programme offering consumers immediate and lifelong solutions to tackling climate change. Through popular culture initiatives, Climate Change Now seeks to engage the public in reducing their personal carbon dioxide emissions as part of their everyday life. Its first target is to switch 1 million European households to renewable energy by September 2006.
Climate Change Now (CCN) is an independent and non-political initiative set up by two young Europeans: Michael Mathres (30, FRANCE) & Alex Lambie (28, UK). It is supported by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the European Environment Agency, world luminaries such as Mikhail Gorbachev, Chairman, Green Cross International and part of Bill Clinton’s Global Initiative and the EU’s Sustainable Energy Europe Campaign. It has also received the backing of corporations that are committed to combating climate change and empowering consumers to do the same. These include Honda, Hilton International, John Lewis Partnership, Sun Microsystems, and many more.
http://www.csrwire.com/article.cgi/4484.html
Climate change transforms Alaska landscape
ANCHORAGE, Alaska, Sept. 27 : Canadian researchers say lakes and wetlands in Alaska's Kenai Peninsula are drying at a significant rate due to global warming.
In a paper published in the August issue of the Canadian Journal of Forest Research, biologist Eric Klein and colleagues at Alaska Pacific University document a significant landscape shift from wetlands to woodland in the Kenai Peninsula Lowlands.
Klein says the transformation of Alaska's landscape corresponds with an increase in temperatures during the past 100 years.
He compared aerial photos of the Kenai Peninsula taken in 1950 and 1996. Combined with field study and vegetation analysis, he said the research confirms wooded areas increased from 57 percent to 73 percent between 1950 and 1996, while wetland areas decreased from 5 percent to 1 percent.
http://www.newkerala.com/news.php?action=fullnews&id=26682
Global warming and the airline industry
27 Sep 2005 14:49:43 GMT
Sept. 27 (Reuters) - Aircraft taking off from airports in the European Union should join the bloc's emissions trading scheme to cut greenhouse gases that damage the environment, the EU executive Commission proposed on Tuesday.
Here are some facts about the airline industry and its link to global warming:
- Some 16,000 commercial aircraft pump out 600 million tonnes of carbon dioxide every year, consuming some 190 billion litres of jet fuel.
- Aviation causes 3.5 percent of man-made global warming, according to the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change. This could rise to 15 percent by 2050.
- Within Europe the aviation sector produces about 100 million tonnes of carbon dioxide annually. The European Union aims to halve carbon dioxide emissions from aircraft by 2020.
- Jet emissions include carbon dioxide, water vapour and nitrous oxides, at high altitude. Some experts say that flying is more damaging than driving as aircraft pollutants spewed high in the air enter the ozone layer straightaway.
- Jet fuel is not included in the Kyoto protocol on greenhouse gases because of difficulties in allocating emissions between countries.
- The International Air Transport Association (IATA), which groups most of the world's airlines, says aircraft fuel efficiency has improved by 17 percent between 1990 and 2000. It forecasts additional improvement of 10 percent by 2010, resulting in aircraft emissions falling by about 300 million tonnes.
Sources: Reuters; IATA (http://www.iata.org/); U.S. Energy Information Administration (http://www.eia.doe.gov/)
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/B424408.htm
Studies Link Storms to Global Warming
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September 27, 2005 9:31AM
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"There is a growing consensus that ... a warmer ocean should lead to more intense hurricanes," said Nate Mantua, a scientist with the University of Washington's Climate Impacts Group.
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Global warming is increasingly being eyed as the cause of a spike in destructive hurricanes around the world.
Recent studies are building links between climate change and the most lethal tropical hurricanes, including the monstrous Gulf Coast storms -- Katrina and now Rita -- that have forced millions to flee.
"There is a growing consensus that ... a warmer ocean should lead to more intense hurricanes," said Nate Mantua, a scientist with the University of Washington's Climate Impacts Group.
Over the past 30 years, the surface temperature of the oceans has increased by about 0.5 to 1 degree Fahrenheit. During that period, the average annual number of the fiercest hurricanes -- Categories 4 and 5 -- has nearly doubled, according to a new study.
http://www.toptechnews.com/news/Studies-Link-Storms-to-Global-Warming/story.xhtml?story_id=12300CNQK3FL
They are getting there.
Heat, hurricanes and global warming linked?
06:52 PM CDT on Monday, September 26, 2005
By TOM HARRIS / KVUE News
The calendar may say it's almost October, but Mother Nature isn't giving Texas much of a break when it comes to the heat. Could it be tied to global warming?
The official high Sunday was 108 degrees.
Mitch Deville just moved to Austin and so far, he's not impressed with summer.
"I don't know what the answer is I don't know what the problem is ... but I think it's time to move onto winter," he said.
Newcomer Haydee Denis says she can take the heat. She packed up what she could in the middle of the night before Katrina blasted New Orleans, and now she calls Austin home.
"I always thought about coming to Austin, so I just packed up the dogs and packed up my car... I left New Orleans at 4:30 in the morning," she said.
But have hurricane and heat intensities increased? And if so, what has caused the increase? KVUE News asked experts at the University of Texas.
"Whether global warming is responsible for the last two years of warming would be premature to make these links. I think we need to look at a longer time scale," said Dr. Jay Banner, the director of the Environmental Sciences Institute.
Banner does believe global warming is affecting today's weather. He points to two consecutive studies just released -- one from the Journal of Science, the other from the Journal of Nature -- which indicate global warming is increasing the intensity of hurricanes.
"Here is some rigorous analysis of the data over the past 30 years that suggests that there is a connection with the warming of our atmosphere and the intensities of hurricanes," he said.
Experts predict more studies on the possible link between global warming and hurricanes will be done after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated the Gulf Coast.
http://www.kvue.com/news/local/stories/092605kvueglobalwarming-cb.9799f0ca.html
Global warming a reality: Flannery
Monday Sep 26 19:28 AEST
Simple remedies are available to counter one of the world's greatest threats, climate change, according to one of Australia's leading scientists.
Internationally acclaimed paleontologist and controversial conservationist Tim Flannery says the debate about climate change is over, global warming is destroying the world and something must be done about it. Now.
His new book, The Weather Makers, launched in Sydney, paints a bleak picture, but one with a ray of sunny optimism.
Dr Flannery, also the director of the South Australian Museum, says humanity is creating its own weather - releasing thousands of tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere and creating a blanket that traps the planet's heat.
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=64618
Hoffman: So, does global warming get your interest now?
--
Sunday, September 25, 2005
Donna Hoffman Guest column
Time for our government to step up and save us from real threat is now
AUSTIN – The horrors of Katrina and Rita make it painfully clear how dependent our communities are on the natural systems around us.
When those systems are out of balance, our safety and security are at risk.
Global warming, more than anything else today, is threatening the natural balance on which we have relied. Katrina, Rita and the future strengthened hurricanes we can expect should serve as our wake-up call to put solutions in place immediately.
Leading scientists, such as Kerry Emanuel of MIT's Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences Department, connect the increased violence of hurricanes to warmer ocean water and other trends caused by global warming.
Emanuel reports, “My results suggest that future warming may lead to an upward trend in [hurricanes'] destructive potential, and – taking into account an increasing coastal population – a substantial increase in hurricane-related losses in the 21st century.”
The consequences of global warming will be felt differently in different regions and will not necessarily be experienced all at once, but the effects have the potential to be incredibly disruptive to people's lives, our economy and our public health.
http://www.wacotrib.com/opin/content/news/opinion/stories/2005/09/25/20050925wachoffman25.html
African scientists to create climate change network
Africa has few climate change scientists, despite being threatened by global warming
Ochieng' Ogodo
26 September 2005
Source: SciDev.Net
[NAIROBI] African researchers and policymakers agreed last week to create a network to boost African earth sciences, including climate science.
The Africa Network in Earth System Science will encourage the sharing of ideas and resources between organisations whose activities include work on climate change, said Eric Odada of the University of Nairobi, one of the organisers of the Kenya meeting where the decision was taken.
Odada told the gathering of scientists, policymakers, representatives of the United Nations Environment Project and possible funders, that Africa lacks long-term, stable intergovernmental support for research into global environmental change.
And unlike Latin America and the Asia-Pacific, he added, Africa has no network of climate scientists despite being highly vulnerable to global warming.
Bob Scholes of South Africa's Council for Scientific and Industrial Research said global climate change scientists were rare in Africa and unevenly distributed across the continent.
http://www.scidev.net/gateways/index.cfm?fuseaction=readitem&rgwid=4&item=News&itemid=2377&language=1
POLITICS PLAYS WHERE IT SHOULD NOT. Global Warming leading to Climate Change is NOT a political issue. It is a matter of survival. There is no democracy with Geophysics.
Storms kick off climate change debate
Washington flouts new studies that find global warming may cause their growing violent nature.
WASHINGTON -- Katrina and Rita have kicked off a debate among scientists over the effect of global climate change on hurricane intensity, but it doesn't appear the environmental issue has grabbed the attention of Washington.
Scientists have been reluctant to cite climate change as the cause for the recent spate of Atlantic hurricanes in light of inconclusive data. But recent studies indicate that the increasingly violent nature of the storms over the past 35 years could be attributed to global warming.
Washington has, to this point, all but ignored the debate on global climate change, although some provisions in the recently passed energy bill promoting alternative energy sources could be seen as a nod in that direction. That same bill, however, includes $13.1 billion in tax breaks for industries that emit greenhouse gases, including $4 billion for the oil industry.
In one of his earliest White House actions, President Bush rejected the Kyoto Protocol, which would limit carbon dioxide production. Bush said that its measures would prove too costly, while maintaining that developing nations should not have been excluded from the early rounds of emissions caps.
Since then, Bush said global warming needs more study. And he recently approved a little-noticed accord with Australia, China, India, Japan and South Korea to combat climate change by shifting to cleaner energy technology.
Congress also hasn't proved eager to address the matter.
Earlier this year, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., introduced the Climate Stewardship Act. The legislation calls for extra scientific research on abrupt climate change and an accelerated reduction of U.S greenhouse gas emissions through a market-driven system. The bill has languished in the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, and is an unlikely candidate for consideration this year.
Polls indicate the public is concerned about environmental issues like global warming, but few consider it a priority. A survey released Sept. 20 by the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions at Duke University found that 79 percent of those questioned favored "stronger national policy to protect our land, air and water." Few cited global warming as a major concern.
http://www.detnews.com/2005/nation/0509/26/A10-327232.htm
Michael Moore Today
JACK CAFFERTY owes Michael Moore an apology. He called him a loser. Jack doesn't seem to understand that Mike spearheads all the reversals of fortune corruption has earned the Bushes over the years. Big Business. Basically, the exploitaiton of Americans. If it weren't for Mike, the news media would not be interested in these topics regardless their truth and we would all be living lives of oppression without hope. Mike is more than hope. He is justice personaified in the democracy that is still alive in the USA.
Mikeis hardly a loser, especially not today. Besides being a marvelously successful documentarian, he attacks the attention of those in this government that believe in the truth. That believe in themselves over a corrupt government. That believe in democracy. Michael has lead us to success in oppressing a global assault on sovereign nations. He has spawned all kinds of initiatives in autonomous economic fronts such as The Traverse City Film Festival which in turns supports film makers. He has promoted a peace movement that has encouraged it's current enthusiasm. He has promoted the Covington Disaster Relief site. Michael Moore is worth his weight in gold. Thanks, Mike. Love you, Buddy.
Tom DeLay is going down, man. He already has today !! Hang in there Mike, it's taken some time for God to let those most corrupt know who is BOSS !
DeLay Indicted in Campaign Finance Probe
By Larry Margasak / Associated Press
A Texas grand jury on Wednesday charged Rep. Tom DeLay and two political associates with conspiracy in a campaign finance scheme, an indictment that could force him to step down as House majority leader.
DeLay attorney Steve Brittain said DeLay was accused of a criminal conspiracy along with two associates, John Colyandro, former executive director of a Texas political action committee formed by DeLay, and Jim Ellis, who heads DeLay's national political committee.
The indictment against the second-ranking, and most assertive Republican leader came on the final day of the grand jury's term. It followed earlier indictments of a state political action committee founded by DeLay and three of his political associates.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4303
Driving Truck
From Eric:
Before Rita hit, we rented a 26' truck and literally packed up Camp Casey-Covington. Tents, coolers, boxes and bags were loaded for transport. The bulk of the volunteers hunkered down at a church in Tylertown, Mississippi while the rest of us headed to Mobile, AL to meet up with a group called S.O.S., Saving Ourselves.
S.O.S. began their hurricane relief operation around the same time as the Veterans for Peace. Their missions are near identical and the organizations share complimentary needs. S.O.S. is allowing VFP to use their warehouse as a staging area and VFP is providing volunteers to help organize the space and distribute food, clothing, cleaning supplies, etc. to those in need. Two houses, right next door to each other, were offered to VFP for housing volunteers. This is where we are now staying.
In the days after Rita hit, I drove the truck almost constantly. We picked up hundreds of sets of bed sheets, pillow cases, silverware sets, other kitchen items, generators, chainsaws and two pallet jacks to roll them off the truck and into the staging facility.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/covington.php?id=39
Why I Was Smiling and Hurricane Rita
...a message from Cindy Sheehan
I had a huge grin on my face when I was getting arrested yesterday. I have received a lot of flak for smiling. Apparently I am not supposed to smile, but I had some really good reasons for doing so.
First of all, I was having fun. I was with a group of good-humored, cheerful, happy people. We were singing old protest songs and old Sunday school songs and clapping. I felt I had to be cheerful to set the tone. We didn't want any trouble or to do anything non-peaceful. Secondly, when I got arrested and the officers lifted me out I was afraid that America would see my underwear and that tickled me.
There is another and more important reason that I was smiling. I had not genuinely smiled since Casey was killed in Iraq. I thought my hope was buried along with my son and I was in a pit of hopeless despair. Camp Casey gave me back my hope because America came out in huge numbers to support us and they raised their voices with ours in unison to take our country back and to hold this administration accountable for the lies and mistakes that are killing tens of thousands of innocent people. There were hundreds of thousands of regular Americans who came out to protest the war and Bush's policies this past Saturday. Hundreds of faithful Americans turned out for our interfaith religious service Sunday night next to the Washington Monument. The so-called religious right doesn't have a monopoly on God. I am so pleased that the people of America are becoming active participants in Democracy and America is ready to put their money where their collective mouths are: to bring our troops home and hold BushCo accountable. It is a wonderful thing to be doing something that makes a difference and it is a wonderful and miraculous thing to have my hope back. That is why I am smiling.
Now about Hurricane Rita: I woke up on Saturday morning filled with excitement. I knew that the rally and march were going to be amazing events and I was thrilled to be a part of them. I switched on the TV and turned on CNN and for 2 hours, I watched one of their reporters in front of the same downed tree and it wasn't even raining. I knew that there was a hurricane and it was damaging. At the point of the news cycle though, I thought CNN could be covering other news. 40 soldiers have been killed this month so far in Iraq and countless Iraqis have been killed. The war is still going on and the news has been dominated by hurricanes and the terrible aftermaths. I actually think the mainstream media has been doing a good job of pointing out the dropped balls in the Gulf States. However, CNN and other mainstream news outlets ALWAYS report other news besides the illegal occupation of Iraq.
When we had hundreds of thousands of people turn out for protests all over the nation on March 19th, the 2nd anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, the Terry Schiavo fiasco was occurring. The Schiavo tragedy was bad for one family and I was in agony for them, but I found it hypocritical that Congress would rush into a special session to save one person's lives when so many were being needlessly killed in Iraq partly because Congress abrogated their Constitutional responsibilities to declare war. I was also disappointed that that tragedy superseded the protest coverage. Wolf Blitzer called our protests: Insignificant.
Saturday was the most important event in peace history in decades. The numbers were underreported and the wonderful energy was unreported by the mainstream media. With the MSM there will always be something more important than covering the atrocity of Iraq: Michael Jackson, Scott Peterson, Terry Schiavo, The Runaway Bride, etc. It is time we hold our media accountable, too. Balanced coverage of all issues and some investigative reporting would be extremely refreshing.
I am sorry for what seemed to be an insensitive remark about the people who were affected by Rita, but that was not my intention. I am very aware that the failed policies of the Bush administration have all put us in the same boat, so to speak, and we need to take responsibility for righting the wrongs here in our country and in Iraq.
I don't think I can be challenged for my analysis of the war and for what I say because it is all the truth and comes from my heart, so I have to be attacked for smiling. I won't apologize for smiling, though, we are making a difference and that is definitely something to smile about!
http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=511
Bush creates a war and we are expected to fund it forever?
I don't think so. If Halliburton has trouble maintaining control they need to hire their own Army!
In addition, we are suppose to endlessly fund it. I really think the capture of Al Qaeda's second in command in Iraq was a little too 'timely' for the further funding of the Iraqi INVASION to not call it PLANNED.
Bush has a war to benefit cronies and keep Cheney out of personal bankruptcy when Halliburton stockholders could have sued him. These planned assaults are as orchestrated as his PR appeearances.
Al Qaeda was not in Iraq before the invasion.
Zarqawi was CROWNED Osama's Lieutenant in Iraq this past year. That was recognition by al Qaeda whom should have never been given the opportunity to be recognized so much as jailed. Bush is creating his own enemy and allowing it to grow in Iraq to INSURE the presence of the USA and it's coalition.
Capturing al Qaeda in Iraq is irrelivant to the opposition fighting by the Iraqis who see the USA as THE PROBLEM and not the solution.
This war is endless.
We don't belong in Iraq.
We never did.
Bush Warns of Upsurge of Violence in Iraq
Deb Reichmann / Associated Press
WASHINGTON - President Bush on Wednesday warned there will be an upsurge in violence in Iraq before next month's voting, but said the terrorists will fail. "Our troops are ready for them," he said.
Bush's remarks in the Rose Garden came a day after Iraqi and U.S. forces announced they had killed Abdullah Abu Azzam, the No. 2 al-Qaida leader in Iraq, during a weekend raid in Baghdad.
"This guy's a brutal killer," Bush said.
Al-Qaida in Iraq issued an Internet statement denying that Abu Azzam was its deputy leader, calling him "one of al-Qaida's many soldiers" and "the leader of one its battalions operating in Baghdad." The U.S.-led coalition, however, called Abu Azzam the mastermind of an escalation in suicide bombings that have killed nearly 700 people in Baghdad since April.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4299
Small, Rural Towns Hit Hardest by Rita
By Michael Graczyk / Associated Press
BEAUMONT, Texas - While much of Texas and Louisiana dodged the worst of Hurricane Rita, the damage to some small, rural towns was virtually complete — and the storm was being blamed for new deaths long after it moved away.
As temperatures climbed well into the 90s and the heat index was near 106 degrees Monday, the damage from the storm was evident in small communities in southwest Louisiana and southeast Texas.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4277
Auditors to Probe Katrina Contracts
By Hope Yen / Associated Press
WASHINGTON -- A day after castigating the federal government's ousted disaster chief, a House panel is hearing pledges from government auditors that they will closely examine millions of dollars in contracts the Bush administration awarded to politically connected companies for Hurricane Katrina relief.
The inspectors general from half a dozen agencies, as well as officials from the Government Accountability Office, on Wednesday were addressing a House subcommittee on the Katrina cleanup and announcing several new audits to combat waste and fraud.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4293
Many Rita Victims Still Wait for Relief
By Abe Levy / Associated Press
PORT ARTHUR, Texas - Nearly four days after Hurricane Rita hit, many of the storm's sweltering victims are still waiting for electricity, gasoline, water and other relief. The situation prompted one top emergency official to complain that people are "living like cavemen."
In the hard-hit refinery towns of Port Arthur and Beaumont, crews struggled to cross debris-clogged streets to deliver generators and water to people stranded by Rita. They predicted it could be a month before power is restored, and said water and sewer systems could not function until more generators arrived.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4295
THEY KEEP GETTING IT "W"RONG. I guess when a political agenda in DC demands a worldwide conversation to USA values and democracy things get pretty desperate when no one else is interested in them. War anyone? If they won't accept it this way then we'll make them accept it. Like I said before, 'Bush wants democracy but never says anything about PEACE.'
Atta known to Pentagon before 9/11
By John Crewdson and Andrew Zajac / Chicago Tribune
WASHINGTON -- Four years after the nation's deadliest terror attack, evidence is accumulating that a super-secret Pentagon intelligence unit identified the organizer of the Sept. 11 hijackings, Mohamed Atta, as an Al Qaeda operative months before he entered the U.S.
The many investigations of Sept. 11, 2001, have turned up a half-dozen instances in which government agencies possessed information that might have led investigators to some part of the terrorist plot, although in most cases not in time to stop it.
But none of those leads likely would have taken them directly to Atta, the Egyptian architecture student who moved to the U.S. from Germany to take flying lessons and later served as Al Qaeda's U.S. field commander for the attacks.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4297
Baghdad Neighborhood's Hopes Dimmed by the Trials of War
Some Who Welcomed Americans Now Scorn Them
By Ellen Knickmeyer / Washington Post
BAGHDAD -- In the chaotic, hopeful April of 2003, Baghdad's Karrada district was one of those neighborhoods where residents showered flowers on U.S. forces entering the capital. Revelers threw water on one another and the Americans, exuding joy at the crushing of a dictatorship that had silenced, tortured and killed their people.
Now, with the end of the third and in many ways hardest summer of the U.S.-led occupation, the lights of Karrada are dimmer. The collapse of Iraq's central power system has left Baghdad averaging less than eight hours of electricity a day.
The crowds on the sidewalks have thinned -- kidnapping and other forms of lawlessness since the invasion mean Baghdad's comparatively liberated women seldom leave home without a good reason.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4280
The Cheney Observer
I already know Iran wants to destroy Israel. It will be Israel that resolves this as there are too many conflict of interests between Europe and Russia and OIL !! Israel should act prudently without rushing into conflict. It needs to be right and just not only effective.
Iran is just parlaying it's best hand with the EU to accomplish what Osama bin Laden never could with Israel.
Iran condemns Israeli aggression in Gaza
Palestine-Iran, Politics, 9/27/2005
The Iranian 'Iran' newspaper has condemned the Israeli aggression on the Palestinians in Gaza Strip, asserting that these aggressive acts aimed at ending the Palestinian resistance.
In an article on Monday, the paper called on the Palestinian people to unify their stances in facing the Israeli aggression and to commit themselves to the national resistance as the only way to restore their legitimate rights.
Meanwhile, Commander in Chief of Forces of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, Youhya Rahim Safawei, criticized the American war tendency and preemptive military operations which threaten security in the Middle East region.
He added that the instability in the region increases hatred to the USA and Israel.
http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/050927/2005092712.html
ANALYSIS / INDIA-IRAN TIES
India dumps old friend Iran for US nuclear carrot
By Y P RAJESH
New Delhi _ India's unexpected vote against old friend Iran over its nuclear programme stemmed from eagerness to project itself as a responsible nuclear power and safeguard a landmark atomic energy deal with the United States. Although this will strain traditional ties with Teheran, a key supplier of India's oil and gas, the damage could be offset by the emergence of other energy sources, Indian officials and analysts said.
``India decided that a bird in hand is worth two in the bush,'' Manoj Joshi, editor at the New Delhi-based Hindustan Times newspaper, wrote on Monday.
``While the Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline remains to be negotiated, the Indo-US nuclear agreement is poised delicately in the US Congress,'' he said.
http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/28Sep2005_news23.php
India's vote on Iran significant: US
The United States has termed India's vote in favour of an IAEA resolution on Iran's nuclear programme as "very significant".
"It's very significant to the US that India voted with the majority. That is a blow to Iran's attempt to turn this debate into a developed world versus a developing world debate," Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns said.
"We're very grateful for India's support and it's significant that India is now working very closely with the United States and Europe to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power," he said.
Burns said Iran was now isolated and it should suspend its nuclear activities and return to the negotiations with the European Union.
"We have a long-term strategy to isolate Iran on this question, to ratchet up the international pressure on Iran. It is to assemble a growing international coalition against it, as we've done with North Korea," he said.
http://www.ndtv.com/template/template.asp?category=National&template=Irannukes&slug=India
India's backing of IAEA resolution against Iran is a signal of the end of nonaligned movement
When India decided to side with United States and Europeans against Iran and vote accordingly in the IAEA resolution, the world got a very interesting signal. It spelled the end of non-aligned movement that India championed when India called itself a developing country.
Today things have changed. India looks for outsourcing dollars, nuclear energy cooperation, missile shields against China and Pakistan from America. India has silently moved into the American block while maintaining close relationship with Russia. India has also very shrewdly improved relations with China.
http://www.indiadaily.com/editorial/4779.asp
PM to brief Left parties on Iran
(image placeholder)
POLITICAL BUREAU
Posted online: Wednesday, September 28, 2005 at 0000 hours IST
NEW DELHI, SEP 27: With domestic concerns failing to be allayed on India’s stand on Iran and the decision to vote in favour of the IAEA resolution against its controversial nuclear programme, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh himself has been forced to step in for damage control.
Mr Singh will be meeting Left leaders on Wednesday morning to dispel their apprehensions and explain why his government decided to side with the US and the EU-3 in Vienna last week while voting on the resolution that imposes critical curbs on Iran’s nuclear programme. Those who will be meeting the Prime Minister include CPI general secretary AB Bardhan, D Raja and CPI-M Rajya Sabhs Sitaram Yechury.
The Left parties had strongly opposed New Delhi’s decision last Saturday. The CPI-M had said the decision pointed to a compromise by India of its non-alignment policy. The CPI, on the other hand said, the government supported the US-EU resolution because of the recently signed nuclear deal with the US.
http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=103853
Iran May Downgrade Ties With Backers of UN Resolution (Update2)
Sept. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Iran, holder of the world's second- largest reserves of oil and gas, may downgrade its trade ties with countries that backed a United Nations resolution condemning the Islamic Republic's nuclear program, Hamid Reza Asefi, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry said.
Twenty-two countries, including the U.K., France, Germany, Japan and India, voted in favor of referring Iran's nuclear program to the UN Security Council. China, Brazil and Russia led a group of 12 counties that abstained from the vote, while Venezuela opposed the referral.
``We will reconsider our economic ties with all the 21 countries that have acted in this regard rather hostilely,'' Asefi told reporters at Iran's foreign ministry building in central Tehran today. He excluded the U.S. from the count since the U.S. cut diplomatic relations with Iran in 1979, and bars its companies from investing in Iran.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000101&sid=aYckfkOx4fO4&refer=japan
‘We helped Iran buy time’
DH News Service New Delhi:
Since certain points in the resolution were in favour of Iran, it was not right for India to abstain from voting, Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran has maintained.
Faced with strong criticism from the Left and BJP on India voting against Iran’s interest at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) meeting in Vienna, the Centre on Monday clarified that India actually helped Iran buy time for “negotiations and consultations” thereby avoiding a major diplomatic crisis.
“India was successful in conceding EU-3 (comprising Britain, France and Germany) on two major counts to reduce confrontation. We believe the current situation is not a threat to international peace and security and there is significant time for negotiation. Our objective is helpful to Iran,” Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran said after his return from the US.
http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/sep272005/index201742005926.asp>
Cong hits back at critics on Iran issue
From Utpal Borpujari DH News Service New Delhi:
AICC spokesman Anand Sharma said the opponents of India’s stand have no ‘adequate’ understanding of the Iran issue.
Facing criticism from both the Left and BJP, Congress on Monday strongly defended India’s stance at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) vis-a-vis Iran, and rejected allegations that New Delhi had compromised its position to placate the United States.
Accusing the critics of not having “adequate” understanding of the issue involved, AICC spokesman Anand Sharma said, “India has taken a very constructive and positive position at IAEA and there is no departure from the fundamental and stated position.”
“We are very much satisfied that India has engaged EU-3, making them aware of India’s concerns and reservations which were brought on board through amendments. It ensures that this matter remains with IAEA until the next board meeting in November so that Iran’s legitimate position is also served,” Mr Sharma said.
http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/sep272005/national153152005926.asp
Women's games in Iran pose
DPA , TEHRAN
Tuesday, Sep 27, 2005,Page 9
Women in Iran have to cover body contours and hair with long gowns and scarves so that they are properly covered in front of "strange men" in public. The restrictions make it impossible for Iranian sportswomen to attend international competitions.
In order to tackle this problem, women's activist and head of the Women's Sports Federation Faezeh Hashemi arranges games for Moslem women in which they can compete internationally without being watched by a male audience and television cameras.
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2005/09/27/2003273432
China supports solution to Iran-EU nuclear dispute within IAEA framework
China supports a proper solution to the Iranian nuclear issue through negotiation and cooperation within the framework of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a Chinese official said Monday at the 49th IAEA general conference in Vienna.
China has always supported a solution to the Iranian nuclear issue within the framework of the IAEA, as such a solution is conducive to regional peace and stability and in line with the interests of parties concerned, said Zhang Huazhu, head of the Chinese delegation to the conference.
China supports and encourages Iran and the European Union (EU) to continue talks to seek a long-term solution to their nuclear dispute and calls for maximum sincerity and concrete measures from both sides to break the stalemate and resume their nuclear talks, he said.
On the nuclear issue of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Zhang said the six-party talks in Beijing have achieved substantial fruits.
http://english.people.com.cn/200509/27/eng20050927_211170.html
Iran oppn criticises nuclear policies
27 September 2005
TEHERAN — Iran’s reformist opposition criticised the nation’s nuclear policies as it may bring Iran before the United Nations Security Council and lead to sanctions, ILNA news agency reported yesterday.
The spokesman for the MJM faction, Rassoul Montakhabnia, told ILNA President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s government had made a “political mistake” by skipping the Europeans in favour of members of the Non-Aligned Movement.
The new Iranian administration has decided to increase nuclear negotiations with the NAM member states as well as Russia and China and sever talks with the European Union trio Britain, France and Germany, the main negotiating partners in the last two years.
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2005/September/middleeast_September762.xml§ion=middleeast&col=
Eritrean: Jailed Trade Unionists: Latest
Posted on Monday, September 26 @ 19:19:26 BST by mark
Anonymous writes "International Unions Lodge ILO Complaint to Free Trade Union Leaders Held in Eritrean Secret Prison/Further Action Planned
26-Sep-2005
The international trade union movement today stepped up the pressure on the Eritrean government to obtain the release of three trade union leaders held without charge in a secret prison in Asmara.
The IUF, ICFTU and ITGLWF today filed a formal complaint against the Eritrean Government with the UN’s International Labour Organisation (ILO). The complaint, jointly filed before the ILO’s Committee on Freedom of Association says that Eritrea is in violation of ILO Conventions by imprisoning trade unionists Tewelde Ghebremedhin, Minase Andezion and Habtom Weldemicael.
In addition, the three internationals vowed to use “all available means” in order to secure the rapid release of the union leaders.
http://www.nosweat.org.uk/article.php?sid=1391&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
DeLay probe winds down; charges may loom
LARRY MARGASAK
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - A Texas grand jury's recent interest in conspiracy charges could lead to last-minute criminal indictments - possibly against House Majority Leader Tom DeLay - as it wraps up its investigation Wednesday into DeLay's state political organization, according to lawyers with knowledge of the case.
Conspiracy counts against two DeLay associates this month raised concerns with DeLay's lawyers, who fear the chances are greater that the majority leader could be charged with being part of the conspiracy. Before these counts, the investigation was more narrowly focused on the state election code.
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/news/breaking_news/12756935.htm
Scientist: MRIs can serve as lie detectors
Associated Press
CHARLESTON, S.C. - A scientist at the Medical University of South Carolina has found that magnetic resonance imaging machines also can serve as lie detectors.
The study found MRI machines, which are used to take images of the brain, are more than 90 percent accurate at detecting deception, said Dr. Mark George, a distinguished professor of psychiatry, radiology and neurosciences.
That compares with polygraphs that range from 80 percent to "no better than chance" at finding the truth, George said.
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/news/breaking_news/12757000.htm
Gov't: Effect of greenhouse gases rising
RANDOLPH E. SCHMID
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - The effect of greenhouse gases on the Earth's atmosphere has increased 20 percent since 1990, a new government index says.
The Annual Greenhouse Gas Index was released Tuesday by the Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory in Boulder, Colo.
Greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide accumulate in the atmosphere as a result of industrial and other processes. They can help trap solar heat, somewhat like a greenhouse, resulting in a gradual warming of the Earth's atmosphere.
The Earth's average temperature increased about 1 degree Fahrenheit during the 20th century. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns that continuing increases could have serious effects on crops, glaciers, the spread of disease, rising sea levels and other changes.
In its new analysis the laboratory, a branch of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, compares the amounts of carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and chlorofluorocarbons in the air. Those gases have been sampled for many years.
The index was set to a reading of 1 as of 1990 and the lab said it is currently 1.20, indicating an increase of 20 percent.
"The AGGI will serve as a gauge of success or failure of future efforts to curb carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas increases in the atmosphere both by natural and human-engineered processes," said David Hofmann, CMDL director.
The index is expected to be updated each April.
"This index provides us with a valuable benchmark for tracking the composition of the atmosphere as we seek to better understand the dynamics of Earth's climate," said NOAA Administrator Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Jr.
In the current reading, for every million air molecules there are about 375 carbon dioxide molecules, two are methane and less than one is a nitrous oxide molecule. The CFC's make up less than one molecule in a billion in the atmosphere but play a role in regulating Earth's climate and are a key factor in the depletion of the protective ozone layer, NOAA researchers say.
The gases produce an effect known as radiative forcing. It is a shift in the balance between solar radiation coming into the atmosphere and Earth's radiation going out. Radiative forcing, as measured by the index, is calculated from the atmospheric concentration of each contributing gas and the per-molecule climate forcing of each gas.
The lab said most of the increase measured since 1990 is due to carbon dioxide, which now accounts for about 62 percent of the radiative forcing by all long-lived greenhouse gases.
NOAA said the 1990 baseline was chosen because greenhouse gas emissions targeted by the international Kyoto Protocol also are indexed to 1990.
ON THE NET
NOAA Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Lab: http://www.cmdl.noaa.gov/
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/news/breaking_news/12756958.htm
Politician working to stop some homeless from voting
12:15 PM EDT on Tuesday, September 27, 2005
By ANN SHERIDAN / 6NEWS
Commissioner Bill James wants to stop homeless voters who have listed the Urban Ministry Center as their address from casting a ballot.
A local lawmaker who is no stranger to controversy is working to stop some homeless voters from casting a ballot in future elections.
The issue centers on if those homeless people can legally call a shelter their home for the purpose of voting. Politician Bill James said that practice is not traditional or legal and he’s started a controversy that is going all the way to the state board of elections.
http://www.wcnc.com/news/local/stories/wcnc-092705-homeless_vote.9a4248c9.html
Bush may tap oil reserve
WASHINGTON Sep 26, 2005 — President Bush urged Americans on Monday to cut back on unnecessary travel to make up for fuel shortages caused by Hurricane Rita as he prepared to take his seventh trip to the Gulf Coast.
Bush said the government was ready to release fuel from its emergency oil stockpile to alleviate high prices. And he suggested he would name a federal official to oversee the reconstruction of the Gulf Coast after local officials first produce a vision for their rebuilt communities.
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=1161668
World Petroleum Congress opens in South Africa
Johannesburg, Sept 26 Days after Hurricane Katrina and Rita hit US Gulf Coasts and forced several oil refineries there to shut down, global experts are meeting here to find ways to avoid similar future threats and discuss solutions to solve problems currently affecting oil industry. Three years after it sessioned in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, the World Petroleum Congress opened in Johannesburg, South Africa. It will extend till September 29.
“Solutions had to be found around refineries especially after Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast as this resulted in many closing down,” president of the World Petroleum Council, Eivald Roren suggested.
Though there is enough crude oil supply, storage and stock, bottlenecks in refineries are really a problem, he said.
Concerns over the spiking of oil prices top the meeting’s agenda and discussions will also focus on global warming and climate change, solutions for affordable energy and sustainable alternative fuels. The WPC is an international, unbiased, non-political body that provides a forum for discussing issues facing the oil and gas industry.
—Kyodo
http://www.financialexpress.com/print.php?content_id=103755
Mbeki Hopes Petroleum Congress Will Bring Good News to People
BuaNews (Tshwane)
September 26, 2005
Posted to the web September 26, 2005
Zibonele Ntuli
President Thabo Mbeki hopes that the 18th World Petroleum Congress taking place in Johannesburg will bring good news to people throughout the world.
Speaking at the opening of the congress last night, Mr Mbeki said the energy sector was central to global economic and social development.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200509260475.html
Rebuild a self-sustaining Gulf Coast
Editorials
The rush to bring relief to our hurricane-battered Gulf Coast is pumping in billions of dollars worth of contracts, many of them no-bid. Some familiar, politically connected giant corporations such as Halliburton, Fluor and Bechtel already are players there.
Louisiana alone is asking for $250 billion in recovery funds. The numbers are breathtaking, and members of Congress have begun thrashing out where to find the funds.
With so much money at stake and so much haste, the potential for fraud and waste is enormous, and even worse is the clear risk of not rebuilding smarter.
Federal agencies such as FEMA and the Army Corps of Engineers need to help Gulf Coast states rebuild not only their infrastructure but also their economies. A sure, but not always fastest, way to do so is to hire competent local contractors and workers to help with the rebuilding.
FEMA already is buying up thousands of mobile homes and RVs to supply temporary housing to those displaced. Along hurricane-ravaged coasts, such "temporary" shelter has a history of becoming quasi-permanent. Federal, state and local officials need to do some quick and ongoing soul-searching about the kinds of communities this partly politics-driven recovery effort is creating. Mobile home parks would be a poor replacement for some of the historic structures that were lost to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Members of Congress need to be particularly vigilant, in the midst of such an outpouring of national sympathy, against unscrupulous politicians taking advantage of the disaster to push their own district pork projects or reward big campaign-contributors. Critics question contracting with giant corporations such as Halliburton, Bechtel and Fluor not only because of their White House ties - Vice President Dick Cheney was a Halliburton CEO - but also because of past overcharging, safety violations or oversight failures either in Iraq or in projects here at home.
The Gulf Coast most certainly will rise again, but officials need to keep a steady, unhurried eye on the prize of rebuilding a safer, more self-sustaining New Orleans and parts beyond.
http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050927/EDIT01/509270302/1020/EDIT
Will the Bush White House ever be held responsible for the fraud regarding the invasion of Iraq?
BLOG Posted 01/13/2005 @ 11:43am
WMD Hunt Ends; Bush's Spin Goes On
When White House spokesman Scott McClellan opened up his daily press briefing yesterday, he said, "This will be the only question of the briefing." He was joking. But it turned out that the first question--a response to the news the Iraq Survey Group had ended its hunt for weapons of mass destruction after finding absolutely nothing--was practically the only question of the day. Here's that first query:
The fact that the Iraq Survey Group has now folded up its field operations, can you explain to us if there is any sense of embarrassment or lack of comfort about the fact that after two years of looking, these people found nothing that the President and others assured us they would find?
McClellan did the usual. He did not answer the query.
McClellan: I think the President already talked about this last October in response to the comprehensive report that was released by Charles Duelfer [the Iraq Survey Group chief] at that point. Charles Duelfer came to the White House in December; the President took that opportunity to thank him for all the work that he had done. The two discussed how Saddam Hussein's regime retained the intent and capability to produce weapons of mass destruction, and they also discussed how he was systematically gaming the system to undermine the sanctions that were in place, so that once those sanctions were eliminated -- which was something he was trying to do through the U.N. oil-for-food program -- then he could begin his weapons programs once again. And I think the President talked about the other issues back in October. Nothing has changed from that time period.
And nothing has changed in terms of the White House's response to the absence of WMDs. Bush refuses to address the consequences of having misled the nation and the world. Before the war, he stated that there was "no doubt" that Iraq was loaded to the gills with WMDs. It was Saddam Hussein's possession of these deadly weapons, Bush argued, that rendered him a "direct" threat that had to be neutralized immediately. Bush and his aides repeatedly asserted there was no if about Iraq's WMDs. The International Atomic Energy Agency reported it had found no evidence of a revived nuclear weapons program in Iraq, yet Bush and Dick Cheney insisted Hussein had reconstituted such a program. The UN's chief weapons inspector, Hans Blix, said he was concerned about the possibility that Iraq might have kept WMDs hidden from inspectors, but he also stated that discrepancies in Iraq's accounting of its previous WMD material did not mean that Iraq actually possessed such dangerous goods.
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/capitalgames?bid=3&pid=2123
Flashback !!!
The devastation of Iraq
By Dahr Jamail
The devastation of Iraq? Where do I start? After working seven of the past 12 months in Iraq, I'm still overwhelmed by even the thought of trying to describe this.
The illegal war and occupation of Iraq was waged for three reasons, according to the administration of US President George W Bush. First for weapons of mass destruction, which have yet to be found. Second, because the regime of Saddam Hussein had links to al-Qaeda, which Bush has personally admitted have never been proved. The third reason - embedded in the very name of the invasion, Operation Iraqi Freedom - was to liberate the Iraqi people.
So Iraq is now a liberated country.
I've been in liberated Baghdad and environs on and off for 12 months, including being inside Fallujah during the April siege and having warning shots fired over my head more than once by soldiers. I've traveled in the south, in the north, and extensively around central Iraq. What I saw in the first months of 2004, however, when it was easier for a foreign reporter to travel the country, offered a powerful - even predictive - taste of the horrors to come in the rest of the year (and undoubtedly in 2005 as well). It's worth returning to the now-forgotten first half of last year and remembering just how terrible things were for Iraqis even relatively early in our occupation of their country.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/GA11Ak01.html
Sudan peace paves way for oil deals
By Orla Ryan
BBC News business reporter
Rebel leader John Garang has secured a deal
The signing of a peace deal in Sudan last weekend has reignited interest in the country's vast oil reserves.
Little exploration took place during the two-decade long war.
Sudan, which already produces 320,000 barrels of oil a day, has proven reserves of 635 million barrels.
Current figures barely register when compared to producers such as Nigeria and Saudi Arabia - but if the peace deal remains intact and exploration yields results, Sudan could emerge as a major oil player within the next five to ten years.
In the rush for Sudanese oil, Asian companies appear to have got a head start.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4165979.stm
Trade deficit notches new high; dollar sinks
BY JOHN O’NEIL THE NEW YORK TIMES
Posted on Thursday, January 13, 2005
The U.S. trade deficit hit an all-time high of $60.3 billion in November as American appetites for foreign oil and even imported food reached record levels, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday.
The Bush administration urged other countries to help fix the problem, but analysts said the yawning deficit won’t be so easily solved.
The dollar fell sharply after the news, losing ground against the British pound, the euro, the yen and other currencies.
The Commerce Department reported that the shortfall between what the United States sells abroad and what it imports increased 7.7 percent from the previous record — the October deficit of $56 billion.
The new figures showed U.S. exports falling 2.3 percent in November, to $95.6 billion, while imports rose 1.3 percent, to $155.8 billion. The deficit in goods was $64.1 billion, up from $60.1 billion in October, while the country continued to run a small surplus in services — $3.8 billion, down from $4.1 billion the month before.
Treasury Secretary John Snow said the trade gap is a result of foreign countries not growing fast enough to stimulate demand that would help boost U.S. exports. "We want to create more engines of world growth," Snow said, contending that Europe and Japan need to do more to stimulate growth.
Economists agreed that the figures reflected a low level of demand overseas, but pointed as well to a continued willingness by American consumers to buy imports even as a weakening dollar is nudging their prices up. "These numbers are not good," said Drew Matus, the senior economist for Lehman Brothers. "They suggest that a lot of the pickup in consumer spending we saw was unfortunately not benefiting domestic producers but rather trickling out to economies elsewhere in the world."
Mark Vitner, senior economist at Wachovia, said that he was not surprised by the figure, which he said reflected changes in currency values more than changes in actual exchanges of goods.
The dollar’s fall has made imports more expensive, but not by enough to slow down their sales or to lead to a resurgence of domestic manufacturing, he said. "We’ve seen a tremendous increase in the price of imports from Canada, Europe and Japan," he said.
Those three areas represented the largest increases in the trade imbalance, according to Commerce Department figures. The deficit with Canada widened from $5.7 billion in October to $7.3 billion in November, and the gap with Japan went from $5.9 billion to $7.3 billion. The deficit with the European Union went from $9.3 billion to $10.5 billion.
The nation’s largest trade imbalance by far, though, remained with China, and while November saw a slight improvement — to $16.6 billion, from $16.8 billion in October — the gap remains worrisome.
Commerce Secretary Donald L. Evans, in Beijing on a mission to persuade China to take steps to address the imbalance, warned in a speech Wednesday that the deficit is fueling tensions between the two countries. "When China’s leaders fail to produce results on the points of friction in our trading relationship, their failure only empowers those critics within the U.S. political system," Evans said.
A report issued on Tuesday by a congressionally appointed panel said that without the trade deficit with China, the United States would have 1.5 million more jobs than it does today.
China, meanwhile, said Tuesday that its overall trade surplus rose to a record $11.1 billion in December.
China has pegged its currency, the yuan, to the dollar, meaning that the dollar’s fall has not raised the price of Chinese goods. Officials in Washington have lobbied China to let its currency value be set by the market — in which case it would quickly appreciate.
In late New York trading on Wednesday, the euro was quoted at $1.3271, up from Tuesday’s rate of $1.3123. The U.S. currency also lost heavily against the British pound, which jumped to $1.8914 from $1.8776. Information for this article was contributed by Martin Crutsinger of The Associated Press and Bloomberg News.
continued ...
http://www.nwanews.com/story.php?paper=adg§ion=Business&storyid=104778
continued …
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