Sunday, December 09, 2007
...what comes first? Peace? Or a safe and sustainable Earth?...
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Al Gore,and his wife Tipper walk in the streets of Oslo Friday Dec. 7, 2007. Gore will be awarded with the Nobel Peace Prize on Dec. 10. (AP Photo/Bjorn Sigurdson / SCANPIX)
It's interesting to realize both may have to happen at once. Republicans aren't capable !!!
by Samantha Winston
The Lightning Rod
They say there is a place where lightning doesn't strike twice - but three times, four time, over and over.
They say the trees can't grow there. When one gets too tall, it's struck down.
They say there's a place where the air vibrates with electrons, calling the bolts of lightning down flicker-quick and hot fingered, singing the trees that dare raise their heads too high so they grow sideways to defeat the electric enemy.
There are places like that where I have lived. Don't raise your head too high. Don't act too proud. Don't show off. Don't show at all. Hide your body and your mind. Hide behind mediocraty. Because if you don't, then someone will be quick to knock you down - make sure you realize that you better toe the line, stay in line, keep your head down. And if, by some quirk of talent or fate you stand out, you're the lightning rod.
What prevents Peace from happening and sustaining?
John Lennon and Yoko Ono believed Peace was contagious. They believed it needed to be. Not conveniently so, but, necessarily so.
I honestly believe Nixon liked his feet on the ground when it came to nukes rather than above it all.
...Security Assurances. Non-nuclear-weapon states sought guarantees that renunciation of nuclear arms would not place them at a permanent military disadvantage and make them vulnerable to nuclear intimidation. But, it was argued, the security interests of the various states, and groups of states, were not identical; an effort to frame provisions within the Treaty that would meet this diversity of requirements for unforeseeable future contingencies would create inordinate complexities. To resolve the issue, the United States, the Soviet Union, and the United Kingdom submitted in the ENDC, on March 7, 1968, a tripartite proposal that security assurances take the form of a U.N. Security Council resolution, supported by declarations of the three powers. The resolution, noting the security concerns of states wishing to subscribe to the Non-Proliferation Treaty, would recognize that nuclear aggression, or the threat of nuclear aggression, would create a situation requiring immediate action by the Security Council, especially by its permanent members.
Following submission of the Treaty itself to the U.N. General Assembly, the tripartite resolution was submitted to the Security Council. In a formal declaration, the United States asserted its intention to seek immediate Security Council actions to provide assistance to any non-nuclear-weapon state party to the Treaty that was the object of nuclear aggression or threats. The Soviet Union and the United Kingdom made similar declarations. France abstained from voting on the Security Council resolution; the French representative said that France did not intend its abstention to be an obstacle to adoption of the tripartite proposal, but that France did not believe the nations would receive adequate security guarantees without nuclear disarmament....
Headline: Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty / Rogers / Nixon (click here)
Abstract:
(Studio)
Nixon signs nuclear non-proliferation treaty with 46 cntrys.; US, USSR resume nuclear arms limitation talks; France, Communist China not in pact but expected to observe it. REPORTER: Chet Huntley
(DC)
[State Secretary William ROGERS - says 47 nations bound not to interchange nuclear weapons with non-nuclear cntrys.]
[NIXON - declares treaty 1st step in reducing danger of nuclear war.]
Pact will slow nuclear arms race.
REPORTER: Richard Valeriani
U.S. Firmly Committed to NPT (click here)
President George W. Bush
Thirty-five years ago, the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons entered into force. Today, almost all nations are party to the treaty. The NPT represents a key legal barrier to nuclear weapons proliferation and makes a critical contribution to international security.
In May, the parties to the NPT will convene the Seventh Review Conference of the treaty. In the context of this review, I reaffirm the determination of the United States to carry out its treaty commitments and to work to ensure its continuance in the interest of world peace and security.
NPT Parties must take strong action to confront the threat of noncompliance with the NPT in order to preserve and strengthen the treaty's nonproliferation undertakings. We cannot allow rogue states that violate their commitments and defy the international community to undermine the NPT's fundamental role in strengthening international security. We must therefore close the loopholes that allow states to produce nuclear materials that can be used to build bombs under the cover of civilian nuclear programs....
Then in 2006. The USA having pulled out of the Non-Proliferation Treaty signs a joint statement with Russia, ending the progress of a nuclear free Earth, in exchange for the opportunity to continue to do research and escalate into a new Cold War. Bush proves beyond a shadow of a doubt to the entire country and global community, he is not only an ass, but a pain in the ass as well !
Did I mention they were both Republicans. At this point it might be a little confusing !
Joint Statement by President George W. Bush and President V. V. Putin (click here)
The United States and the Russian Federation believe that strengthening their cooperation in civil nuclear energy is in the strategic interests of both our countries. It will serve as an additional assurance of access for other nations to economical and environmentally safe peaceful nuclear energy.
The United States and the Russian Federation are working together to meet the challenges posed by the combination of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and international terrorism. We recognize the devastation that could befall our peoples and the world community if nuclear weapons or materials or other weapons of mass destruction were to fall into the hands of terrorists. We are closely cooperating to lessen that unacceptable danger, including by strengthening the nonproliferation regime and ensuring the security of nuclear weapons and fissile materials.
Cooperation in the Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy...
The US's nuclear cave-in (click here)
By Joseph Cirincione Buffeted by political turmoil at home, US President George W Bush sought a foreign-affairs victory in India. To clinch a nuclear-weapons deal, Bush had to give in to demands from the Indian nuclear lobby to exempt large portions of the country's nuclear infrastructure from international inspection.
With details of the deal still under wraps, it appears that at least one-third of current and planned Indian reactors would be exempt from International Atomic Energy Agency inspections and that Bush gave in to Indian demands for "Indian-specific" inspections that would fall far short of the normal, full-scope inspections...
March 02, 2006
U.S. Enters New Nuclear Age as Bush Seeks Funds for New Generation of Nukes (click here)
A new nuclear age appears to be on the horizon. President Bush recently asked Congress for $27 million to help jumpstart the country’s first new nuclear weapons program in two decades. As we broadcast from New Mexico–the center of the country’s nuclear weapons program–we speak with Greg Mello of the Los Alamos Study Group.
“We are on the verge of an exciting time.”
Those were the recent words of the nation’s top nuclear weapons executive, Linton Brooks. Here in New Mexico–the center of the country’s nuclear weapons program–a new nuclear age appears to be on the horizon. Bush recently asked Congress for $27 million to help jumpstart the country’s first new nuclear weapons program in two decades. The money will be used to fund a competition between the Los Alamos and the Lawrence Livermore laboratories to find and design a new generation of nuclear bombs to replace the country’s entire nuclear arsenal....
Republicans have always had a 'thing' about China. Nixon opened China and now China is shutting down Bush !
One might recognize Nixon and Mao.
...In October 1974, Mr. Bush traveled to Peking, where he served as the Chief of the US Liaison Office during the critical period when the United States was renewing ties with the People’s Republic of China....
Sorta came full circle didn't it? The Communist Country that could. And did. Took the capitalist power of the USA and harnessed it for it's own disposal. Taiwan. Hong Kong. Yep. The Bush family legacy, literally, passed the USA's global prowess to China. I think Neal Bush still finds China his favorite hideaway, prostitutes and all. (click here)
The difference of course is that Nixon wasn't an environmental mental midget, then was the time when predictions were made of today's Climate Crisis.
National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) (click here)
NEPA is the foundation of modern environmental law and has been described as "the most important and far reaching environmental and conservation measure ever enacted by Congress." This historic legislation is widely applicable yet focuses environmental issues within a comprehensive national policy. NEPA provides the continuing stimulus for review of environmental concerns associated with proposed actions. Inherent in the NEPA provisions is environmental accountability and public involvement. NEPA has been emulated by countries throughout the world as a model for environmental impact evaluation and decision making. Its visionary approach to environmental issues makes it as relevant today as when it was first enacted over 30 years ago.
The idiocy doesn't belong to the Court of Appeals, although I am sure it's fashionable to say it. Can anyone guess why the Bush/Cheney/Gonzalez Justice Department wanted to demolish the Ninth Circuit Court? Why they wanted to eliminate some USA Attorneys? Couldn't be related to cronies, could it? Now that is a good reason, maybe the best reason, to destroy the USA Constitution. Right?
Environmental idiocy comes out of Court of Appeals (click here)
The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has done it again.
The most liberal court of the country has put reason on its head and issued a decision that favors the trees over the people.
This time, we believe, even the environmentalists have to ponder the sense of it.
The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a portion of President Bush's "Healthy Forests Initiative," which exempts environmental review of logging projects up to 1,000 acres and prescribed burns up to 4,500 acres. The court said it violated the National Environmental Policy Act.
In its opinion Wednesday, the three-judge appeals court panel said the Forest Service had failed to properly analyze the rule, causing "irreparable injury" by allowing more than 1.2 million acres of national forest land to be logged and burned each year without studying the ecological impacts.
The court ruled that the Forest Service no longer can exempt such projects from environmental analysis until the rule can be analyzed properly.
The ruling sided with the Sierra Club and Sierra Nevada Forest Protection Campaign. The groups said the ruling would protect millions of acres of national forest from destructive and unnecessary logging projects.
We would like to know if there is a concern over the "irreparable injury" caused by devastating wildfires. This injury is not only to human lives and property, but to the forests that are decimated by overheated wildfires that can bake the ground to such a point that water runoff is an environmental disaster, and saplings cannot grow without human intervention.
Forest Service Chief Gail Kimball said that expedited logging on national forests saved thousands of homes during California's recent wildfires.
We see here in the Tahoe Basin that the Angora fire was considered an environmental disaster, and if an even larger fire occurred in the basin, it would greatly affect Lake Tahoe's clarity.
The National Environmental Policy Act already slows the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit from accomplishing various tasks quickly and cheaper.
This court ruling just entrenches an already huge bureaucracy deeper into political mire, leaving an unsuspecting public - and our nation's forests - in peril.
We urge an appeal.
No surprise there, huh? Mental midgets abound everywhere. The entire global community now assembled in Bali, is clamoring for the USA to stop it's' polluting ways and what do Bushies want? To clear cut National Treasures and Protected Forests.
Did I say they were Republicans? I thought I did.
George W. Bush - Republican. Bush - energy crisis. Bush - skyrocketing oil prices. Bush - Expansionist War into where? Where? That's right Iran.
....And why did we need a "major intelligence push" in the first place? According to Miller, it's because Bush dismantled the Iran Task Force set up during Bill Clinton's administration in order to focus all his attention on — surprise! — Iraq. "When Bush came in, they were totally disinterested in Iran," said a former CIA official who held a senior position at the time. "It went from being a main focus to everything being switched to Iraq."....
This is not rocket science. Nixon - Republican. Nixon - oil embargo. Nixon - skyrocketing oil prices. Nixon - Expansionist War.
Nixon called it 'The Moral Majority." Today. The 'moral majority' is culminated by Evangelical Christians that would like to see the USA a majority of people engaged in religious dogma rather than a Constitution.
"Give Peace a Chance" by The Beetles
Two, one, two, three, four
Ev'rybody's talking about
Bagism, Shagism, Dragism, Madism,
Ragism, Tagism
This-ism, That-ism, is-m, is-m, is-m
All we are saying is give piece a chance,
All we are saying is give piece a chance
C'mon
Ev'rybody's talking about ministers,
Sinister, Banisters
And canisters, Bishops, Fishops,
Rabbis, and Pop eyes, Bye, bye, bye byes
All we are saying is give peace a chance,
All we are saying is give peace a chance
Let me tell you now
Revoluton, evolution, masturbation,
Flagellation, regulation, integrations,
Meditations, United Nations,
Congratulations
Ev'rybody's talking about
John and Yoko, Timmy Leary, Rosemary,
Tommy Smothers, Bobby Dylan,
Tommy Copper,
Derek Taylor, Norman Mailer,
Allen Ginsberg, Hare Krishna,
Hare
Krishna
Ev'rybody's talking about
Bagism, Shagism, Dragism, Madism,
Ragism, Tagism
This-ism, That-ism, is-m, is-m, is-m
All we are saying is give piece a chance,
All we are saying is give piece a chance
C'mon
Ev'rybody's talking about ministers,
Sinister, Banisters
And canisters, Bishops, Fishops,
Rabbis, and Pop eyes, Bye, bye, bye byes
All we are saying is give peace a chance,
All we are saying is give peace a chance
Let me tell you now
Revoluton, evolution, masturbation,
Flagellation, regulation, integrations,
Meditations, United Nations,
Congratulations
Ev'rybody's talking about
John and Yoko, Timmy Leary, Rosemary,
Tommy Smothers, Bobby Dylan,
Tommy Copper,
Derek Taylor, Norman Mailer,
Allen Ginsberg, Hare Krishna,
Hare
Krishna
Town says teen can't keep pet rooster
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
IRWIN, Pa. -- Melissa Hensler got a "Most Unusual Pet" prize from her township two years ago for her pet rooster - but now the same township says the bird is a farm animal in a residential area and it's got to go.
The parents of the 13-year-old girl say they may file a lawsuit against the zoning decision by North Huntingdon Township officials.
Melissa has raised the rooster, named Sundae, and eight other chickens for six years. But in July, say parents Barb and Don Hensler, a neighbor complained that they were raising chickens, and the township's attitude changed.
The prize that Sundae won two years ago "is no substitute for township law," code enforcement officer David Stitt said.
"Chickens are farm animals. You can call them pets if you like, but they are still fowl," Stitt said.
A township board rejected the Henslers' request for a zoning exception, leading to their consideration of court action.
"I've already spent $250 for the first appeal. These chickens are not worth that much - maybe $1.75 or $2 - if you sold them," Don Hensler said. "We were just asking the township to allow us to keep our pets until they pass on."
Hensler said chickens typically live eight to 10 years.
"If I had to get rid of them, it would be like losing part of me," Melissa said. "I would be losing my children."
IRWIN, Pa. -- Melissa Hensler got a "Most Unusual Pet" prize from her township two years ago for her pet rooster - but now the same township says the bird is a farm animal in a residential area and it's got to go.
The parents of the 13-year-old girl say they may file a lawsuit against the zoning decision by North Huntingdon Township officials.
Melissa has raised the rooster, named Sundae, and eight other chickens for six years. But in July, say parents Barb and Don Hensler, a neighbor complained that they were raising chickens, and the township's attitude changed.
The prize that Sundae won two years ago "is no substitute for township law," code enforcement officer David Stitt said.
"Chickens are farm animals. You can call them pets if you like, but they are still fowl," Stitt said.
A township board rejected the Henslers' request for a zoning exception, leading to their consideration of court action.
"I've already spent $250 for the first appeal. These chickens are not worth that much - maybe $1.75 or $2 - if you sold them," Don Hensler said. "We were just asking the township to allow us to keep our pets until they pass on."
Hensler said chickens typically live eight to 10 years.
"If I had to get rid of them, it would be like losing part of me," Melissa said. "I would be losing my children."
Conservation Carbon - Reforesting Ecuador's Northwestern Rain Forests
Challenge
Over the last 35 years, deforestation due to logging, agriculture and population growth have resulted in the loss of over two-thirds of this region’s original forest cover. Today, much of the original forest has been converted to use for commercial agriculture or pasture dominated by invasive African grasses and commercial agriculture. Many fields have also been abandoned, leaving only highly degraded and stunted secondary vegetation. The threat of losing so many species found nowhere else in the world has grown to the point that Ecuador’s Ministry of Environment recently highlighted this region as one of the top five conservation priorities in the nation.
Response
In an effort to protect the region’s biodiversity, support local communities and combat global warming, Conservation International’s (CI) Conservation Carbon program is engaging the private sector to support reforestation projects in the coastal plain and western foothills of northwestern Ecuador which will mitigate climate change, protect biodiversity, and support local communities....
The Challenge is compounded by what may be expanding militias among the countries promoting Rainforest Biome Revitalization. The countries of South America need to reassess the importance of these regions of their country and protect them from degradation by militias. Reputations can be enhanced of all these countries if there are higher reaching values in conservation at a time when Earth's worst enemy pollutes more carbon than any other.
The countries of South America now forming economic ties need to educate their citizens in regard to conservation and the protections of such areas to promote more peace, national security and national pride.
Sovereignty is most important. Stability is key to development and a self-interest of people to a viable economy.
Here again, human rights is paramount to any other directive by the country.
Bolivia Assembly To Vote On New Constitution (click on title to entry)
Once the assembly agrees on all the provisions of a new constitution it must go to a national referendum for approval.
The assembly rewriting Bolivia's basic law agreed to reconvene on Saturday to vote article by article on a draft constitution that has caused a deep split and violent protests in the poor Andean country.
Among controversial reforms the assembly could approve this weekend are allowing presidents to serve more than one consecutive term, turning the bicameral legislature into a one-house body, and granting Indian communities and provinces more autonomy from the central government.
The assembly's board of directors said in a news release that it called for delegates to meet on Saturday evening in Oruro city, two weeks after three people died in violent protests in Sucre, the assembly's original base.
The assembly is controlled by allies of leftist President Evo Morales who aim to empower Bolivia's poor Indian majority after centuries of discrimination. Its work stalled for months because of fear of violence.
But two weeks ago the delegates met under military guard and approved an outline of the constitution in a vote boycotted by the opposition. That vote sparked violent protests in Sucre and a general strike in six of the country's nine provinces.
Once the assembly agrees on all the provisions of a new constitution it must go to a national referendum for approval....
Influence peddling that leads to arming of militias anywhere in the world by any company needs to end. Sovereignty and the humane treatment of all the world's citizens needs to take place. Peace among any peoples are important while the political processes are reviewed internationally.
The world is a far, far smaller sphere in the year 2008. War is not an option and roving militias are simply more danger to any aspect of any ultimate freedom of people. Stability and the scrutiny of the international community, along with sustainability as per the UN efforts while human rights organizations seek better political processes that eliminate human suffering and cause instability rather than peace.
If the USA continues it's ambitions of spreading democracy to benefit it's 'wealth economics' then instability in any country only leads to the opportunity to cause war rather than settle it. Human rights in relation to political processes will find resolve in trade arrangements and economic infrastructure. The more citizens appreciate the aesthetics of their lives including educational systems for children, the more they will want to sustain their governments without violence and seek a political process which facilitates participation.
No war. No militia will bring back destroyed natural assets of a country. In the year 2008, Earth has to take precedent and educational processes of all people need to bring a focus to the value of peace over war and internal strife.
Alabama Coal Company Accused of Bankrolling Colombia's Killer Right-Wing Militias By Frank Bajak
The Associated Press
Friday 06 July 2007
Rafael Garcia, the former technology director of the DAS state security agency, says in an affidavit that he saw Jimenez give "a suitcase full of cash" to paramilitary commanders "to assassinate specific union leaders," naming Locarno and Orcasita. Garcia is in prison, convicted of erasing drug traffickers' names from DAS records.
Former paramilitary fighter Alberto Visbal says in an affidavit that he saw Jimenez pay his boss, who went by the alias "Julian," $200,000 in cash. Visbal, who has fled Colombia, said he understood from another fighter present that the money was in exchange for the killings. Visbal says he was later sent to confirm Locarno's death.
In a filing in an Atlanta circuit court Thursday seeking more time to gather depositions, plaintiffs for the union also alleged that former union treasurer Jimmy Rubio saw a Drummond official - they didn't specify which one - pay a paramilitary leader for the killings. Rubio went into hiding when his father-in-law was murdered just before he was to give a deposition in the case, they said.
Affidavits from Rubio, Visbal and Garcia have all been entered into the public record in Birmingham.
Drummond challenged the accounts. "We have evidence that some (of the witnesses) are being paid and/or offered assistance by the United Steelworkers Union," it said in its written response.
http://www.able2know.org/forums/about99620.html
It is in the best interest of the region to protect the rainforests and provide military support if needed against militias.
In this image released by Venezuela's Miraflores Press Office, Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, right, stands with Belarus' President Alexander Lukashenko at Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, Friday, Dec. 7, 2007.
Story Published: Dec 9, 2007 at 11:57 AM PST
Story Published: Dec 9, 2007 at 11:57 AM PST
Besides the oil of the region, there is economic vitality in the rainforests with protected conservation efforts.
Ecuador's Correa Deepens Navy's Control of State Oil Company
By Stephan Kueffner
Dec. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Ecuador appointed Navy officers to lead the state-owned oil company's three biggest divisions, deepening the armed forces' control of PetroEcuador.
Patricio Goyes will run the production unit, Carlos Albuja will head refining, and Marco Salinas will oversee sales of oil and other fuels, the company said today in an e-mailed statement.
The personnel moves come after President Rafael Correa last week named a Navy admiral to run the company, which produces about half of the Andean country's roughly 500,000 barrels in daily output. He handed control to the military after a week of protests in the Amazon region shut some output....
By Stephan Kueffner
Dec. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Ecuador appointed Navy officers to lead the state-owned oil company's three biggest divisions, deepening the armed forces' control of PetroEcuador.
Patricio Goyes will run the production unit, Carlos Albuja will head refining, and Marco Salinas will oversee sales of oil and other fuels, the company said today in an e-mailed statement.
The personnel moves come after President Rafael Correa last week named a Navy admiral to run the company, which produces about half of the Andean country's roughly 500,000 barrels in daily output. He handed control to the military after a week of protests in the Amazon region shut some output....
Perhaps that is the intent of the Chinese interest in Equator? I mean if the USA can't stabilize a country, I guess they won't be extended a welcome. But, in the same instance doesn't that open more nuclaer options in the Western Hemisphere? Well, at any rate, the rainforests, if over run by militias would be plundered for their lumber and causing not only the failure of the scientific efforts in Northern Chile, but, a new danger to the carbon sinks that are so vital to Earth.
China poised to take over U.S. base at Ecuador's invitation
Ecuador’s president has offered the Chinese government an airbase currently serving as one of the last U.S. military outposts in South America.
Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa said during his recent visit to China that he would offer Beijing a lease on the Manta Airport, the presidential website reported last week.
Currently, Manta is used by U.S. military forces for operations. The contract is up in 2009 and Correa will not renew it, a transport and public works ministry communications official told BNamericas.
Currently, Manta is used by U.S. military forces for operations. The contract is up in 2009 and Correa will not renew it, a transport and public works ministry communications official told BNamericas.
Bank of South Inaugurated in Argentina
Buenos Aires, Dec 9 (Prensa Latina) The Presidents of Brazil, Venezuela, Paraguay, Bolivia, Ecuador, Uruguay and Argentina will meet here on Sunday to sign the foundational act of the Bank of the South, which will fund regional projects, official sources confirmed on Saturday.
Bank of the South with a New Tool for Development
Hugo Chavez Arrives in Argentina for Inauguration
The ceremony to inaugurate the Bank of the South will be one of the last official activities of Argentine President Nestor Kirchner, who will hand over power to his wife, Cristina Fernandez, on Monday.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez confirmed the inaugural ceremony, when he ratified an announcement made by his Ecuadorian counterpart, Rafael Correa.
"Caracas will be the venue. We had planned to sign it in Caracas one of these days, but there is not time due to overlapped schedules," Chavez said recently in Santiago de Chile at the end of the Ibero-American Summit.
The Bank of the South will open with an initial capital of seven billion dollars, which will come from the seven member countries" international reserves.
According to Chavez, one of the promoters of the project, the bank will help Latin America to be financially independent from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
Buenos Aires, Dec 9 (Prensa Latina) The Presidents of Brazil, Venezuela, Paraguay, Bolivia, Ecuador, Uruguay and Argentina will meet here on Sunday to sign the foundational act of the Bank of the South, which will fund regional projects, official sources confirmed on Saturday.
Bank of the South with a New Tool for Development
Hugo Chavez Arrives in Argentina for Inauguration
The ceremony to inaugurate the Bank of the South will be one of the last official activities of Argentine President Nestor Kirchner, who will hand over power to his wife, Cristina Fernandez, on Monday.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez confirmed the inaugural ceremony, when he ratified an announcement made by his Ecuadorian counterpart, Rafael Correa.
"Caracas will be the venue. We had planned to sign it in Caracas one of these days, but there is not time due to overlapped schedules," Chavez said recently in Santiago de Chile at the end of the Ibero-American Summit.
The Bank of the South will open with an initial capital of seven billion dollars, which will come from the seven member countries" international reserves.
According to Chavez, one of the promoters of the project, the bank will help Latin America to be financially independent from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
Ecuador's foreign minister resigns
QUITO, Ecuador (AP): Ecuador's foreign minister resigned Thursday and President Rafael Correa wants her successor to adopt a "more revolutionary'' approach to diplomacy, a government spokeswoman said Thursday.
Maria Espinosa resigned for personal reasons but may still work with the government in other areas, spokeswoman Julia Ortega told reporters.
Espinosa's replacement has not been named but Correa "wants the diplomatic service to be much more revolutionary,'' Ortega said. The Foreign Ministry must "respond much more to the dynamic of the new government and citizen's revolution.''
The leftist Correa took office in January vowing to root out corruption and wrest power from Ecuador's traditional political parties, which he blames for the country's ills.
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/12/7/apworld/20071207084435&sec=apworld
Ecuadorian president appoints new foreign minister
www.chinaview.cn
2007-12-08 10:19:14
QUITO, Dec. 7 (Xinhua) -- Ecuadorans President Rafael Correa appointed Tourism Minister Maria Isabel Salvador as the country's top diplomat Friday after her predecessor resigned the previous day.
Salvador was sworn in as the new foreign minister at a cabinet meeting to succeed Maria Fernanda Espinosa, who tendered her formal resignation Thursday. A government spokeswoman said she resigned for personal reasons.
Espinosa acknowledged certain problems in the foreign ministry, but denied having problems with President Correa, saying she is willing to continue collaborating with him in the citizen revolution project he is carrying out.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-12/08/content_7217968.htm
Ecuador Endorses Constituent Assembly’s Actions
December 09, 2007
(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Many Ecuadorians are content with the first decisions carried out by their Constituent Assembly, according to a poll by Cedatos/Gallup. 76 per cent of respondents support the ad-hoc legislative body’s ratification of Rafael Correa as president, and 69 per cent approve of the decision to shut down the National Congress.
In addition, 59 per cent of respondents agree with the Constituent Assembly having full powers, and 52 per cent approve of its ability to dismiss any person or institution that does not carry out its decisions. Support is considerably lower—at 35 per cent—for allowing lawmakers to have immunity from prosecution.
http://www.angus-reid.com/polls/view/29278/ecuador_endorses_constituent_assemblyaas_actions
Who pays for Amazon rainforest conservation?
An interview with the largest private sponsor of rainforest protection: the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
Rhett Butler, mongabay.com
December 11, 2006
Monday, Brazil created the world's largest rainforest protected area in the northern Amazon. Covering more than 15 million hectares (57,915 square miles) -- or an area larger than England -- the network of seven new protected reserves has been met with praise by environmental groups. Instrumental in the development of the conservation project has been an organization that most people wouldn't associate with rainforest conservation but certainly should: the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.
Established by Gordon Moore, founder of Intel, and his wife, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation is today the largest private donor to Amazon conservation and research, doling out more than $200 million to projects in the region since 2001 (more than $358 million if you include the neighboring Andes region). The sum may represent a quarter of all money spent in the Amazon basin by non-governmental groups, according to a November 19th article in San Francisco Chronicle Magazine.
The Foundation says its primary objective is to achieve "the effective management of 370 million hectares of forested landscapes" which it says are needed to maintain the climatologic function of the Amazon Basin and protect the region's biodiversity distributed across eight major ecoregions and 13 major watersheds in order to preserve the region's long-term ecological viability. The 370 million hectares represents 45 percent of the region's 815 million hectares of rainforest and is considered a threshold below which the Amazon rainforest ecosystem may tip towards a radically different landscape dominated by dry savanna. The shift would have a dramatic impact on the region's plant and animal life....
VOCALS - VAMOS - Ocean - Cloud - Atmosphere - Land Study
From Wikipedia
Iquique, Chili (IPA /i'kike/) is a city in northern Chile, capital of Tarapacá Region, on the Pacific coast, just west of the Atacama Desert and the Pampa del Tamarugal. It is located at 20°13′S, 70°10′W and had a population of 216,419 as of the 2002 census[1].
The city's name comes from the Aymara word "Ique-ique", which translates to "laziness", but can also mean "sleep" or "bed."
Gore urges climate action, heading to Bali
Former U.S. Vice President and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Al Gore, left, and Geir Lundestad, right, director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute, board the high speed train from Oslo airport to the city center, shortly after Gore's arrival in Oslo, Friday, Dec. 7, 2007. Gore and the U.N.'s climate panel chairman, Dr. Rajendra K. Pachauri, are to receive their shared Nobel Peace Prize award on Monday. (AP Photo/Scanpix, Bjorn Sigurdson)
Oslo (dpa) - The winners of the 2007 Nobel Peace Price Sunday called for a "strong mandate" to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at the ongoing UN climate conference meeting on the Indonesian resort island of Bali.
"What we are facing is a planetary emergency," former US vice president Al Gore said at a news conference, adding that "the challenge now is to awaken the global community now to reduce global emissions sharply."
Co-laureate Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), said that "we have a clear window" to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and "have to show results by 2015."
"And this verdict is very clear," he added, referring to the scientific data the some 2,500 researchers in the IPPC have assessed and compiled in several reports.
Gore and Pachauri were Monday slated to receive their awards at a ceremony in Oslo. On Wednesday they were scheduled to make a brief stop in the Swedish capital Stockholm before heading to Bali.
Pachauri said the IPCC was "a unique undertaking and its assessments now are approved by politicians all over the world, word by word."
Gore said he hoped the Bali meeting would result in "a strong mandate to reduce emissions."
He said he was "optimistic" citing the development in the United States and all over the world of a "people power movement on one subject globally."
Gore who was defeated 2000 in a tight, controversial presidential race against George W Bush said he had "no plans to run" again but said he would not rule it out either.
Both prize winners urged children and youth to get involved in climate change issues at school and elsewhere and try to pressure adults to make changes.
The peace prize and the other Nobel awards were endowed by Swedish dynamite inventor Alfred Nobel, and are each worth 10 million kronor (1.53 million dollars).
The other Nobel prizes awarded for medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and economics are handed over in Stockholm. All the prize ceremonies are held Monday, the anniversary of Nobel's death in 1896.
Ice storm coats nation's middle; 5 dead
December 9, 2007
Bowling Green, Ohio
By CHERYL WITTENAUER
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
ST. LOUIS -- An ice storm slickened roads and sidewalks, grounded hundreds of flights, and cut power to tens of thousands Sunday in a swath from the Southern Plains to the Great Lakes as even colder weather threatened.
The wintry weather was expected to continue through midweek, and ice storm warnings stretched from Texas to Pennsylvania.
"Tomorrow may be even more of a dilemma than today because we're going to get even a little bit more colder," said John Pike, a meteorologist in the Weather Service's office in Norman, Okla.
Five traffic deaths were blamed on icy roads in Oklahoma.
More than 130,000 customers lost power in Missouri, Oklahoma, Illinois and Kansas, utilities reported.
Some communities in Missouri reported ice as thick as three-quarters of an inch, the National Weather Service said.
"The rural roads are pretty rough, the main highways are pretty clear, and the overpasses are slick," said John Christiansen, emergency management director in Missouri's St. Clair County....
ST. LOUIS -- An ice storm slickened roads and sidewalks, grounded hundreds of flights, and cut power to tens of thousands Sunday in a swath from the Southern Plains to the Great Lakes as even colder weather threatened.
The wintry weather was expected to continue through midweek, and ice storm warnings stretched from Texas to Pennsylvania.
"Tomorrow may be even more of a dilemma than today because we're going to get even a little bit more colder," said John Pike, a meteorologist in the Weather Service's office in Norman, Okla.
Five traffic deaths were blamed on icy roads in Oklahoma.
More than 130,000 customers lost power in Missouri, Oklahoma, Illinois and Kansas, utilities reported.
Some communities in Missouri reported ice as thick as three-quarters of an inch, the National Weather Service said.
"The rural roads are pretty rough, the main highways are pretty clear, and the overpasses are slick," said John Christiansen, emergency management director in Missouri's St. Clair County....
Looks like something one would see from Katrina
A freezer unit sits atop a car near Curtis, in western Lewis County, on Thursday. Gov. Chris Gregoire is seeking federal help for homeowners and businesses. (December 06, 2007)
Mike Kane/P-I
Mike Kane/P-I
Morning Papers - continued...
Seattle Post Intelligencer
Gore says carbon emission cuts essential
By DOUG MELLGREN
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
OSLO, Norway -- Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore said Sunday that reducing carbon dioxide emissions is essential to the "survival of our civilization" - and reiterated he had no plans to run for president.
At a joint news conference with the U.N.'s chief climate scientist, Gore called for grass-roots movements worldwide to push political leaders into action to curb the emissions that contributed to global warming.
"It is a question of the survival of our civilization," Gore told reporters at the Nobel Institute in downtown Oslo. "CO2 increases anywhere are a threat to the future of civilization everywhere."
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1103ap_gore_nobel.html
Cyclone skirts populated parts of Fiji
By PITA LIGAIULA
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
NADI, Fiji -- A powerful cyclone packing wind gusts up to 154 mph pounded small islands in northern Fiji on Friday, but missed heavily populated areas of the South Pacific nation, officials said.
Cyclone Daman remained a Category 4 storm early Saturday, forecaster Alipate Waqaicelua said, "but we've got to be thankful that it missed the two larger islands of Fiji."
Officials had feared many of the flimsy thatched homes of farmers and fishermen would be blown away.
"While the cyclone is weakening (slowly) it's still packing a very strong punch," Waqaicelua told The Associated Press from Fiji's Nadi weather center.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1106ap_fiji_cyclone.html
Tropical storm possible in Atlantic
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
MIAMI -- A weather system off Puerto Rico has the potential to become a tropical storm, forecasters said Sunday, a little more than a week after the Atlantic hurricane season ended.
At 5 p.m. EST, the system was about 550 miles east-northeast of Puerto Rico. It was moving west at about 15 to 20 mph and was expected to continue that general motion over the next day or two, according to the National Hurricane Center.
It could become a tropical or subtropical storm during the next 24 hours, forecasters said. Tropical storms have winds of at least 39 mph.
The Atlantic hurricane season, which ended Nov. 30, had 14 named storms this year. Six of those were hurricanes.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1110ap_tropical_weather.html
So is the launch for NASA in January before or after the hurricanes ?
Shuttle launch off until January
By MARCIA DUNN
AP AEROSPACE WRITER
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- NASA on Sunday delayed the launch of space shuttle Atlantis until January after a gauge in the fuel tank failed for the second time in four days.
With only a few days remaining in the launch window for the shuttle's mission to the international space station, senior managers decided to stand down until next month in hopes of better understanding the perplexing and persistent fuel gauge problem.
"We're determined to get to the bottom of this," said LeRoy Cain, chairman of the mission management team.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1501ap_space_shuttle.html
Bush declares state flooding major disaster; funds on way
By BRAD WONG
P-I REPORTER
CHEHALIS -- President Bush has declared Washington's flooding a major disaster, clearing the way for federal aid, and Gov. Chris Gregoire said Saturday $300,000 in state emergency assistance was available to help those affected by the recent storm.
Bush's declaration allows the Federal Emergency Management Agency to reimburse six southwestern counties -- Grays Harbor, Kitsap, Lewis, Mason, Pacific and Thurston -- at least 75 percent of debris-removal costs, and up to 75 percent of emergency measures.
However, Bush has not yet approved individual assistance funding for Washington residents. FEMA spokeswoman Debbie Wing said more types of assistance could be granted and more counties could be covered as floodwaters recede and officials get a better look at the damage.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/342849_flooding09.html
Bush attends star-filled holiday benefit
By NATASHA T. METZLER
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
WASHINGTON -- The nation's capital rolled out the red carpet - and holiday garlands - Sunday for music stars like Alan Jackson and Katharine McPhee, who performed for President Bush and the first lady at the annual "Christmas in Washington" concert.
TV host "Dr. Phil" McGraw and his wife, Robin, hosted the festivities for the fourth time. The event, which took place at the National Building Museum, benefited Children's National Medical Center.
"This event is one of the season's great traditions," Bush said. "After all, when else can you see a world-class tenor, country music legend and Dr. Phil all in the same place?"
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1151ap_bush_christmas.html
US military deaths in Iraq at 3,886
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
As of Sunday Dec. 9, 2007, at least 3,886 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes eight military civilians. At least 3,165 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers.
The AP count is one higher than the Defense Department's tally, last updated Friday at 10 a.m. EST.
The British military has reported 173 deaths; Italy, 33; Ukraine, 18; Poland, 21; Bulgaria, 13; Spain, 11; Denmark, seven; El Salvador, five; Slovakia, four; Latvia, three; Estonia, Netherlands, Thailand, Romania, two each; and Australia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, South Korea, one death each.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1107ap_iraq_us_deaths.html
Syria sinking in flood of refugees from Iraq
By LARRY JOHNSON
P-I FOREIGN DESK EDITOR
The P-I's Larry Johnson was part of a group sponsored by the Seattle chapter of the United Nations Association that recently went to Syria to look at how Iraqi refugees are coping and how their presence in such high numbers is affecting their host country. See the blog from the trip: blog.seattlepi.com/piinsyria.
DAMASCUS, Syria -- It's the biggest outpouring of refugees in the Middle East in more than 50 years. Not since the creation of Israel in 1948, when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were uprooted, has the region seen such a flood of human beings.
Some 2.6 million Iraqis have fled their homeland since the start of the war in 2003. The overwhelming majority -- 1.5 million -- are in Syria. And most of them are in Damascus, where a group of us from Seattle went last month.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/342804_refugee08.html?source=mypi
UK PM Brown visits Iraq before handover
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BASRA, Iraq -- British Prime Minister Gordon Brown flew into southern Iraq Sunday to rally troops who are handing over the last region under their control to Iraqi forces this month.
Britain plans to give responsibility for Basra province to Iraqi forces in mid-December, relinquishing the last of four regions of southern Iraq it occupied after the 2003 invasion.
Soldiers lined the staircases of an airport base to watch Brown arrive for his hourlong visit, offering thunderous applause as he praised their efforts to maintain security in the south.
"We have managed now to get Iraq to a far better position ... we're able to move to provincial control and that is thanks to what you have achieved," Brown told soldiers.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1103ap_iraq_britain.html
Why is it, that Syria has so many refugees but is on the Bush/Cheney/Gates hit list ? Why is it that the British are handing over provinces all the time and withdrawing troops while the USA forces see nothing but aggression and killing as a resolve to any PRECEIVED instability. Why is it the provinces where the USA forces exist are always in upheaval ?
Iraq plans crackdown in violent province
By LORI HINNANT
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
BAGHDAD -- Iraq's defense minister promised on Sunday to wage a new crackdown in a volatile province northeast of Baghdad where militants are trying to regroup after being routed from their urban stronghold there last summer.
Suicide attacks have killed more than 20 people in the last three days in Diyala province, a tribal patchwork of Sunni Arabs, Shiites and Kurds that stretches from Baghdad to the border with Iran.
Defense Minister Abdul-Qader al-Obeidi told The Associated Press that preparations had begun for a fresh military operation in the provincial capital, Baqouba, about 35 miles from Baghdad.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1107ap_iraq.html
Vigilantes kill 40 women in Iraq's south
By SINAN SALAHEDDIN
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
BAGHDAD -- Religious vigilantes have killed at least 40 women this year in the southern Iraqi city of Basra because of how they dressed, their mutilated bodies found with notes warning against "violating Islamic teachings," the police chief said Sunday.
Maj. Gen. Jalil Khalaf blamed sectarian groups that he said were trying to impose a strict interpretation of Islam. They dispatch patrols of motorbikes or unlicensed cars with tinted windows to accost women not wearing traditional dress and head scarves, he added.
"The women of Basra are being horrifically murdered and then dumped in the garbage with notes saying they were killed for un-Islamic behavior," Khalaf told The Associated Press. He said men with Western clothes or haircuts are also attacked in Basra, an oil-rich city some 30 miles from the Iranian border and 340 miles southeast of Baghdad.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1107ap_iraq_women_killed.html
Search for snowboarders ends; men presumed dead
By CRAIG HARRIS AND CASEY MCNERTHNEY
P-I REPORTER
The search for three snowboarders missing since last weekend at Crystal Mountain officially ended Saturday evening and will not resume. Rescue workers believe an avalanche probably killed the men.
Kevin Carter, 26, Devlin Williams, 29, and Phillip Hollins, 41, have been missing since they failed to return from a weekend trip that began Nov. 30. The men worked as bike messengers at Seattle's Fleetfoot Messenger Service.
"It was a clear day and they had helicopters up and they couldn't find anything," said Hollins' mother, Sally Hollins. "He was my help and support. He certainly did a lot for me, and I sure as heck will miss him."
Ed Troyer, a Pierce County Sheriff's Department spokesman, said as many as 35 rescue workers searched for the men for the last five days.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/342848_snowboard-search.html
Man reports $50,000 loss to car prowler
By BRAD WONG
P-I REPORTER
Seattle Police often remind people to be careful leaving valuables in their cars, particularly during the holidays.
One man learned that lesson the hard way Friday, when he reported that a thief broke into his silver 2007 Cadillac Escalade and made off with $50,000 worth of goods.
The thief's new loot includes cash, diamonds, a laptop computer, a passport and a pilot's license, according to a police report.
The theft occurred near the Experience Music Project building and in a parking lot at Fifth Avenue North and Harrison Street.
The man parked the sport utility vehicle around 6:30 p.m. When he returned around 7:45 p.m., someone had punched the driver's side keyhole and took a black computer bag and dark brown briefcase.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/342856_carprowl10.html
Nursing aide sentenced in rape of stroke victim
By TRACY JOHNSON
P-I REPORTER
She is no longer trapped inside a paralyzed body, forced to endure whatever former nursing assistant Lamin Darboe wanted to do to her as she lay unable to fight back or cry out.
So on Friday, the woman turned her wheelchair to face Darboe. She watched a judge send him to prison. And as her anguished wails filled the King County courtroom, she told him about the agony of being a stroke victim who was raped.
"Even though it was a sick act of pleasure for Darboe, it hurt me very badly," she said in a letter read aloud by an advocate. "Only I would know the great pain of biting my tongue while being raped, still unable to open my mouth after the stroke."
Darboe, 40, was sentenced to 8 1/2 years to life in prison for raping the woman, who was in his care at Kindred Hospital in Northgate last year.
Superior Court Judge Julie Spector called it one of the most tragic cases she had ever seen and noted his ultimate prison term would be up to the state parole board.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/342683_darboe08.html
Levitz bankruptcy erects hurdles for customers
By DAN RICHMAN
P-I REPORTER
Some patrons of Levitz Furniture, which began closing all its stores earlier this week after declaring bankruptcy, say customer service has also gone belly up.
Difficulties in learning how to handle returns and complaints are surfacing after the purchase by Hilco Merchant Resources LLC of Levitz's assets at auction and its liquidation of the company.
Sgt. David Kasin of Fort Lewis said Thursday he and his wife were rebuffed when trying to return a sofa that was delivered damaged. The couple said they ordered the $1,900 sofa, with an extra-cost extended warranty, from Levitz's Tacoma store.
Its back was torn when it was delivered Nov. 2, and they called the next day to report the problem.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/342726_levitz08.html
Pair assaulted on bus awarded $250,000
P-I STAFF
A jury has decided that King County Metro Transit must pay a couple $250,000 for failing to protect them when they were attacked by a mob of unruly men aboard a bus.
Carmen Rollins and Wilhelm Hendershott had sued Metro for negligence because, their lawyer argued at trial, a bus driver failed to take any action to help them during an assault that began aboard his bus May 22, 2005.
Thursday, a jury agreed, awarding each $125,000.
The couple said they were on the bus when the driver allowed 25 to 30 unruly men and women to board. Some in the group targeted the couple for harassment, groping Rollins, then assaulting them when Hendershott told them to back off.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/342682_bussuit08.html
Cougar nearly joins SD woman in hot tub
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
DEADWOOD, S.D. -- A relaxing soak in a hot tub came to an abrupt end when Marlene Todd came eye to eye with a mountain lion in her backyard.
"I was kind of hidden, sitting with my back up against the side of the tub, and I heard a little rustling sound in the needles right beside me," she said.
Todd said she thought it might have been her house cat until she saw "this big, tan, hairy body" just 4 inches away.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1120ap_odd_close_cougar.html?source=mypi
Tortoise's 3rd freedom flight foiled
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- It wasn't exactly a high-speed chase.
Willy the tortoise made a crawl for freedom this week, getting half a mile from the fenced yard where he lives in a doghouse.
Shelley Larsen figures the 200-pound shellback escaped after her 18-year-old son, Aaron, left a gate open Thursday.
Willy was corralled by a neighbor and Riverside County Department of Animal Services workers drove him to a shelter, with the 11-year-old African tortoise "rocking back and forth" in the truck, department spokesman John Welsh said.
"I don't think the public realizes how big and how very strong tortoises are," Welsh said. "The whole shelter was abuzz. Willy is the size of a small bathtub."
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1120ap_odd_runaway_tortoise.html?source=mypi
Poor students of color less likely to be in Seattle's gifted program
Gap reflects perceptions of elitism, racism
By PAUL NYHAN
P-I REPORTER
Seattle Public Schools' program for gifted students is saddled with perceptions of elitism and racism, and a philosophy that doesn't reflect the latest in gifted education, an outside review panel reported Monday.
The 1,300 students served by the Accelerated Progress Program don't match the racial and economic makeup of Seattle's public schools, the report found. White students make up 70 percent of the program's students, but only 40 percent of the overall district population.
"Some of the belief structures and language used to describe the students and the program contribute to a perception of the program as elitist, exclusionary and even racist," the report stated.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/342176_app04.html
Patrols make downtown safer
Extra policing will continue through next year
By SCOTT GUTIERREZ
P-I REPORTER
An infusion of police officers into downtown's central shopping district has decreased 911 calls and chased away many of the thugs and dope dealers who made the area feel unsafe.
Although crime swept out of the area around Pike and Pine streets has apparently moved into neighboring districts, the city is calling its experiment a success and intends to keep extra police on the downtown beat at least through next year.
Most people downtown attest to sharp reductions in loitering, panhandling and street thuggery since the police effort began in summer. And many had hoped the city would maintain the presence next year.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/342782_downtown08.html
4 shot outside Colorado Springs church
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- A gunman opened fire in the parking lot of a Colorado Springs church on Sunday, striking four people, the church's pastor said.
The conditions of the people shot outside the New Life Church were not known, El Paso County Sheriff's Lt. Lari Sevene said.
Lance Coles, a pastor at New Life Church, told The Associated Press he received a report that a man was shooting at people in the church parking lot and that the gunman may have entered the church.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1110ap_church_shooting.html
Group targeted in shooting has far reach
By ERIC GORSKI
AP RELIGION WRITER
DENVER -- Begun in 1960 after a 20-year-old college student said he experienced a vision from God, Youth With a Mission has grown into one of the world's most formidable Christian missions groups.
The group, characterized by a decentralized structure and reputation for attracting zealous young people, equips missionaries to spread the Christian faith around the world, including some of the world's most dangerous corners.
In the dark early hours of Sunday morning, what was supposed to be a safe harbor - a YWAM training center in suburban Denver - turned deadly when a gunman killed two staff members and injured two others.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1110ap_church_shootings_missionaries.html
South Korean spill hits seafood industry
By HYUNG-JIN KIM
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
SHINDURI BEACH, South Korea -- Chung Hwan-hyang surveyed the damage from South Korea's worst oil spill, saddened by the knowledge that the oyster farm she and her husband ran for 30 years was lost.
"My oysters are all dead," the 70-year-old woman said Sunday as she and thousands of others cleaned foul-smelling oil from Shinduri Beach. "I cried and cried last night. I don't know what to do."
Some 2.7 million gallons of crude gushed into the ocean after a collision Friday between a barge and a supertanker carrying more than 260,000 tons of crude oil.
For Chung and other residents of Taean County, nearly 100 miles southwest of Seoul, the spill brought despair and shock at how the pollution shattered lives and businesses.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1104ap_skorea_oil_spill.html
Scientists: Seaweed could stem warming
By JOSEPH COLEMAN
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
BALI, Indonesia -- Slimy, green and unsightly, seaweed and algae are among the humblest of plants.
A group of scientists at a climate conference in Bali say they could also be a potent weapon against global warming, capable of sucking damaging carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere at rates comparable to the mightiest rain forests.
"The ocean's role is neglected because we can't see the vegetation," said Chung Ik-kyo, a South Korean environmental scientist. "But under the sea, there is a lot of seaweed and sea grass that can take up carbon dioxide."
The seaweed research, backed by scientists in 12 Asian-Pacific countries, is part of a broad effort to calculate how much carbon is being absorbed from the atmosphere by plants, and to increase that through reforestation and other steps.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1104ap_seaweed_to_the_rescue.html
Suicide car bomber kills 8 in Pakistan
By ZARAR KHAN
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- A suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden car into a police outpost Sunday, killing eight people in an area where the military has been battling Islamic militants loyal to a fugitive cleric, an official said.
Five civilians - including two children - and three policemen died in the attack at the Nimgole post, the headquarters of pro-Taliban cleric Maulana Fazlullah, said chief military spokesman Maj. Gen. Arshad Waheed. Several others were wounded.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1104ap_pakistan_suicide_attack.html
Europe, Africa stuck on key issues
By BARRY HATTON
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
LISBON, Portugal -- The first summit between Europe and Africa in seven years came to an acrimonious end Sunday with leaders squabbling over human rights and no progress on a looming trade pact deadline.
Old divisions surfaced at the two-day summit as leaders swapped accusations over the crises in Zimbabwe and Darfur, and postcolonial tensions deepened over free trade deals.
The World Trade Organization has ruled that the EU's 30-year-old preferential trade agreement with Africa was unfair to other trading nations and violated international rules. New deals are meant to be finalized by Dec. 31.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1103ap_eu_africa_summit.html
Idaho test reactor opens to universities
By KEITH RIDLER
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
BOISE, Idaho -- The U.S. Department of Energy is making available to university researchers a nuclear reactor test facility in southeast Idaho so they might learn how to build better nuclear power plants.
The Idaho National Laboratory's Advanced Test Reactor earlier this week issued a call for proposals from universities to conduct irradiation experiments.
"There has been a resurgence of interest in commercial nuclear power," Ivonne Couret, public affairs officer with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said in an e-mail to The Associated Press. "The NRC has been very busy and has had an increase of applications received and expects to receive more in 2008."
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1501ap_nuclear_research.html
Canada reactor woes delay medical tests
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
TORONTO -- Thousands of cancer patients in the U.S., Canada and other countries have had their medical tests postponed because of a problem with a Canadian nuclear reactor that produces medical isotopes used to diagnose and treat such cases.
The isotope shortage is the result of a prolonged shutdown of the reactor in Chalk River, Ontario, which supplies about two-thirds of the multibillion-dollar medical isotopes market to hospitals around the world.
Doctors warned that a shortage of nuclear material due to the shutdown of the federally owned reactor is getting worse by the day, causing many patients to worry.
"Last week, I guess you could describe it as struggling. This week it's devastating, and next week potentially catastrophic," said Dr. Chris O'Brien, president of the Ontario Association of Nuclear Medicine.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1101ap_canada_nuclear_medicine.html
Venezuela's Chavez promises Belarus oil
By IAN JAMES
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
CARACAS, Venezuela -- President Hugo Chavez promised to supply the oil needs of Belarus for years to come Saturday and dismissed Western accusations that former Soviet republic's leader is a dictator.
Concluding his first visit to Venezuela, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko promised to help the South American country beef up its military.
Chavez said both he and his counterpart are wrongly labeled "dictators" by their critics.
"The international media dictatorship ... calls him 'Europe's last dictator,' and me the last dictator of Latin America. Here we are, the last dictators," Chavez said, laughing. "They demonize us ... (because) we're leading a process of liberating our nations, uniting our nations."
Venezuela and Belarus share similarly hostile stances toward Washington. The U.S. government calls the leftist Chavez a threat to Latin America's stability and Belarus an "outpost of tyranny," accusing Lukashenko of stifling dissent and free speech.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1102ap_venezuela_belarus.html
Sub-Saharan Africans cannot count blessings
LARRY DONOHUE
I am sitting by the fireplace. The aroma of freshly brewed Celebration Blend coffee, the newest offering from our son's Blue Star Coffee Roasters, competes with yet complements the bouquet from the cinnamon cider steeping on the stove.
We are mostly healthy. Our children and grandchildren seem happy as they pursue their life choices. Our great grandchild's choices seem limitless. Life is good for us.
The end-of-year holidays are a good time to recall how blessed we are that we were born in the Northern Hemisphere. Much of our comfort is tied to that lucky stroke of fate. Admittedly, we may have worked hard to get an education and may have worked hard in our professions and careers, but how different these holidays would be had our birth cry been sounded in sub-Saharan Africa.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/342717_firstperson10.html
Living Food: Cut farm subsidies
Thanks to a veto threat from President Bush, the U.S. Senate has a choice between wasting its time passing a subsidy-laden farm bill or making substantive reforms. For the sake of Americans' health, the Senate should have the courage to make major changes.
In its current form, the farm bill is as bloated as the waistlines of those who partake a bit too much in our super-sweetened, high-calorie and overprocessed food fare. When it begins voting on amendments as early as Tuesday, the Senate should choose to phase out the system of huge subsidies for major crops.
We don't like many of the president's veto threats, but he is right here. The subsidy system is outdated, favorable to rich farm owners and out of step with free and fair trade concepts.
Sens. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., and Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., have offered an excellent alternative that phases out subsidies -- in a different way than Bush has proposed -- while improving environmental programs and paying more attention to promoting healthy fruit and vegetable crops. Their plan deserves broad support, including from Washington's Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/342716_farmed.html
continued...
Gore says carbon emission cuts essential
By DOUG MELLGREN
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
OSLO, Norway -- Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore said Sunday that reducing carbon dioxide emissions is essential to the "survival of our civilization" - and reiterated he had no plans to run for president.
At a joint news conference with the U.N.'s chief climate scientist, Gore called for grass-roots movements worldwide to push political leaders into action to curb the emissions that contributed to global warming.
"It is a question of the survival of our civilization," Gore told reporters at the Nobel Institute in downtown Oslo. "CO2 increases anywhere are a threat to the future of civilization everywhere."
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1103ap_gore_nobel.html
Cyclone skirts populated parts of Fiji
By PITA LIGAIULA
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
NADI, Fiji -- A powerful cyclone packing wind gusts up to 154 mph pounded small islands in northern Fiji on Friday, but missed heavily populated areas of the South Pacific nation, officials said.
Cyclone Daman remained a Category 4 storm early Saturday, forecaster Alipate Waqaicelua said, "but we've got to be thankful that it missed the two larger islands of Fiji."
Officials had feared many of the flimsy thatched homes of farmers and fishermen would be blown away.
"While the cyclone is weakening (slowly) it's still packing a very strong punch," Waqaicelua told The Associated Press from Fiji's Nadi weather center.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1106ap_fiji_cyclone.html
Tropical storm possible in Atlantic
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
MIAMI -- A weather system off Puerto Rico has the potential to become a tropical storm, forecasters said Sunday, a little more than a week after the Atlantic hurricane season ended.
At 5 p.m. EST, the system was about 550 miles east-northeast of Puerto Rico. It was moving west at about 15 to 20 mph and was expected to continue that general motion over the next day or two, according to the National Hurricane Center.
It could become a tropical or subtropical storm during the next 24 hours, forecasters said. Tropical storms have winds of at least 39 mph.
The Atlantic hurricane season, which ended Nov. 30, had 14 named storms this year. Six of those were hurricanes.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1110ap_tropical_weather.html
So is the launch for NASA in January before or after the hurricanes ?
Shuttle launch off until January
By MARCIA DUNN
AP AEROSPACE WRITER
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- NASA on Sunday delayed the launch of space shuttle Atlantis until January after a gauge in the fuel tank failed for the second time in four days.
With only a few days remaining in the launch window for the shuttle's mission to the international space station, senior managers decided to stand down until next month in hopes of better understanding the perplexing and persistent fuel gauge problem.
"We're determined to get to the bottom of this," said LeRoy Cain, chairman of the mission management team.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1501ap_space_shuttle.html
Bush declares state flooding major disaster; funds on way
By BRAD WONG
P-I REPORTER
CHEHALIS -- President Bush has declared Washington's flooding a major disaster, clearing the way for federal aid, and Gov. Chris Gregoire said Saturday $300,000 in state emergency assistance was available to help those affected by the recent storm.
Bush's declaration allows the Federal Emergency Management Agency to reimburse six southwestern counties -- Grays Harbor, Kitsap, Lewis, Mason, Pacific and Thurston -- at least 75 percent of debris-removal costs, and up to 75 percent of emergency measures.
However, Bush has not yet approved individual assistance funding for Washington residents. FEMA spokeswoman Debbie Wing said more types of assistance could be granted and more counties could be covered as floodwaters recede and officials get a better look at the damage.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/342849_flooding09.html
Bush attends star-filled holiday benefit
By NATASHA T. METZLER
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
WASHINGTON -- The nation's capital rolled out the red carpet - and holiday garlands - Sunday for music stars like Alan Jackson and Katharine McPhee, who performed for President Bush and the first lady at the annual "Christmas in Washington" concert.
TV host "Dr. Phil" McGraw and his wife, Robin, hosted the festivities for the fourth time. The event, which took place at the National Building Museum, benefited Children's National Medical Center.
"This event is one of the season's great traditions," Bush said. "After all, when else can you see a world-class tenor, country music legend and Dr. Phil all in the same place?"
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1151ap_bush_christmas.html
US military deaths in Iraq at 3,886
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
As of Sunday Dec. 9, 2007, at least 3,886 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes eight military civilians. At least 3,165 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers.
The AP count is one higher than the Defense Department's tally, last updated Friday at 10 a.m. EST.
The British military has reported 173 deaths; Italy, 33; Ukraine, 18; Poland, 21; Bulgaria, 13; Spain, 11; Denmark, seven; El Salvador, five; Slovakia, four; Latvia, three; Estonia, Netherlands, Thailand, Romania, two each; and Australia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, South Korea, one death each.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1107ap_iraq_us_deaths.html
Syria sinking in flood of refugees from Iraq
By LARRY JOHNSON
P-I FOREIGN DESK EDITOR
The P-I's Larry Johnson was part of a group sponsored by the Seattle chapter of the United Nations Association that recently went to Syria to look at how Iraqi refugees are coping and how their presence in such high numbers is affecting their host country. See the blog from the trip: blog.seattlepi.com/piinsyria.
DAMASCUS, Syria -- It's the biggest outpouring of refugees in the Middle East in more than 50 years. Not since the creation of Israel in 1948, when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were uprooted, has the region seen such a flood of human beings.
Some 2.6 million Iraqis have fled their homeland since the start of the war in 2003. The overwhelming majority -- 1.5 million -- are in Syria. And most of them are in Damascus, where a group of us from Seattle went last month.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/342804_refugee08.html?source=mypi
UK PM Brown visits Iraq before handover
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BASRA, Iraq -- British Prime Minister Gordon Brown flew into southern Iraq Sunday to rally troops who are handing over the last region under their control to Iraqi forces this month.
Britain plans to give responsibility for Basra province to Iraqi forces in mid-December, relinquishing the last of four regions of southern Iraq it occupied after the 2003 invasion.
Soldiers lined the staircases of an airport base to watch Brown arrive for his hourlong visit, offering thunderous applause as he praised their efforts to maintain security in the south.
"We have managed now to get Iraq to a far better position ... we're able to move to provincial control and that is thanks to what you have achieved," Brown told soldiers.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1103ap_iraq_britain.html
Why is it, that Syria has so many refugees but is on the Bush/Cheney/Gates hit list ? Why is it that the British are handing over provinces all the time and withdrawing troops while the USA forces see nothing but aggression and killing as a resolve to any PRECEIVED instability. Why is it the provinces where the USA forces exist are always in upheaval ?
Iraq plans crackdown in violent province
By LORI HINNANT
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
BAGHDAD -- Iraq's defense minister promised on Sunday to wage a new crackdown in a volatile province northeast of Baghdad where militants are trying to regroup after being routed from their urban stronghold there last summer.
Suicide attacks have killed more than 20 people in the last three days in Diyala province, a tribal patchwork of Sunni Arabs, Shiites and Kurds that stretches from Baghdad to the border with Iran.
Defense Minister Abdul-Qader al-Obeidi told The Associated Press that preparations had begun for a fresh military operation in the provincial capital, Baqouba, about 35 miles from Baghdad.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1107ap_iraq.html
Vigilantes kill 40 women in Iraq's south
By SINAN SALAHEDDIN
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
BAGHDAD -- Religious vigilantes have killed at least 40 women this year in the southern Iraqi city of Basra because of how they dressed, their mutilated bodies found with notes warning against "violating Islamic teachings," the police chief said Sunday.
Maj. Gen. Jalil Khalaf blamed sectarian groups that he said were trying to impose a strict interpretation of Islam. They dispatch patrols of motorbikes or unlicensed cars with tinted windows to accost women not wearing traditional dress and head scarves, he added.
"The women of Basra are being horrifically murdered and then dumped in the garbage with notes saying they were killed for un-Islamic behavior," Khalaf told The Associated Press. He said men with Western clothes or haircuts are also attacked in Basra, an oil-rich city some 30 miles from the Iranian border and 340 miles southeast of Baghdad.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1107ap_iraq_women_killed.html
Search for snowboarders ends; men presumed dead
By CRAIG HARRIS AND CASEY MCNERTHNEY
P-I REPORTER
The search for three snowboarders missing since last weekend at Crystal Mountain officially ended Saturday evening and will not resume. Rescue workers believe an avalanche probably killed the men.
Kevin Carter, 26, Devlin Williams, 29, and Phillip Hollins, 41, have been missing since they failed to return from a weekend trip that began Nov. 30. The men worked as bike messengers at Seattle's Fleetfoot Messenger Service.
"It was a clear day and they had helicopters up and they couldn't find anything," said Hollins' mother, Sally Hollins. "He was my help and support. He certainly did a lot for me, and I sure as heck will miss him."
Ed Troyer, a Pierce County Sheriff's Department spokesman, said as many as 35 rescue workers searched for the men for the last five days.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/342848_snowboard-search.html
Man reports $50,000 loss to car prowler
By BRAD WONG
P-I REPORTER
Seattle Police often remind people to be careful leaving valuables in their cars, particularly during the holidays.
One man learned that lesson the hard way Friday, when he reported that a thief broke into his silver 2007 Cadillac Escalade and made off with $50,000 worth of goods.
The thief's new loot includes cash, diamonds, a laptop computer, a passport and a pilot's license, according to a police report.
The theft occurred near the Experience Music Project building and in a parking lot at Fifth Avenue North and Harrison Street.
The man parked the sport utility vehicle around 6:30 p.m. When he returned around 7:45 p.m., someone had punched the driver's side keyhole and took a black computer bag and dark brown briefcase.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/342856_carprowl10.html
Nursing aide sentenced in rape of stroke victim
By TRACY JOHNSON
P-I REPORTER
She is no longer trapped inside a paralyzed body, forced to endure whatever former nursing assistant Lamin Darboe wanted to do to her as she lay unable to fight back or cry out.
So on Friday, the woman turned her wheelchair to face Darboe. She watched a judge send him to prison. And as her anguished wails filled the King County courtroom, she told him about the agony of being a stroke victim who was raped.
"Even though it was a sick act of pleasure for Darboe, it hurt me very badly," she said in a letter read aloud by an advocate. "Only I would know the great pain of biting my tongue while being raped, still unable to open my mouth after the stroke."
Darboe, 40, was sentenced to 8 1/2 years to life in prison for raping the woman, who was in his care at Kindred Hospital in Northgate last year.
Superior Court Judge Julie Spector called it one of the most tragic cases she had ever seen and noted his ultimate prison term would be up to the state parole board.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/342683_darboe08.html
Levitz bankruptcy erects hurdles for customers
By DAN RICHMAN
P-I REPORTER
Some patrons of Levitz Furniture, which began closing all its stores earlier this week after declaring bankruptcy, say customer service has also gone belly up.
Difficulties in learning how to handle returns and complaints are surfacing after the purchase by Hilco Merchant Resources LLC of Levitz's assets at auction and its liquidation of the company.
Sgt. David Kasin of Fort Lewis said Thursday he and his wife were rebuffed when trying to return a sofa that was delivered damaged. The couple said they ordered the $1,900 sofa, with an extra-cost extended warranty, from Levitz's Tacoma store.
Its back was torn when it was delivered Nov. 2, and they called the next day to report the problem.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/342726_levitz08.html
Pair assaulted on bus awarded $250,000
P-I STAFF
A jury has decided that King County Metro Transit must pay a couple $250,000 for failing to protect them when they were attacked by a mob of unruly men aboard a bus.
Carmen Rollins and Wilhelm Hendershott had sued Metro for negligence because, their lawyer argued at trial, a bus driver failed to take any action to help them during an assault that began aboard his bus May 22, 2005.
Thursday, a jury agreed, awarding each $125,000.
The couple said they were on the bus when the driver allowed 25 to 30 unruly men and women to board. Some in the group targeted the couple for harassment, groping Rollins, then assaulting them when Hendershott told them to back off.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/342682_bussuit08.html
Cougar nearly joins SD woman in hot tub
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
DEADWOOD, S.D. -- A relaxing soak in a hot tub came to an abrupt end when Marlene Todd came eye to eye with a mountain lion in her backyard.
"I was kind of hidden, sitting with my back up against the side of the tub, and I heard a little rustling sound in the needles right beside me," she said.
Todd said she thought it might have been her house cat until she saw "this big, tan, hairy body" just 4 inches away.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1120ap_odd_close_cougar.html?source=mypi
Tortoise's 3rd freedom flight foiled
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- It wasn't exactly a high-speed chase.
Willy the tortoise made a crawl for freedom this week, getting half a mile from the fenced yard where he lives in a doghouse.
Shelley Larsen figures the 200-pound shellback escaped after her 18-year-old son, Aaron, left a gate open Thursday.
Willy was corralled by a neighbor and Riverside County Department of Animal Services workers drove him to a shelter, with the 11-year-old African tortoise "rocking back and forth" in the truck, department spokesman John Welsh said.
"I don't think the public realizes how big and how very strong tortoises are," Welsh said. "The whole shelter was abuzz. Willy is the size of a small bathtub."
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1120ap_odd_runaway_tortoise.html?source=mypi
Poor students of color less likely to be in Seattle's gifted program
Gap reflects perceptions of elitism, racism
By PAUL NYHAN
P-I REPORTER
Seattle Public Schools' program for gifted students is saddled with perceptions of elitism and racism, and a philosophy that doesn't reflect the latest in gifted education, an outside review panel reported Monday.
The 1,300 students served by the Accelerated Progress Program don't match the racial and economic makeup of Seattle's public schools, the report found. White students make up 70 percent of the program's students, but only 40 percent of the overall district population.
"Some of the belief structures and language used to describe the students and the program contribute to a perception of the program as elitist, exclusionary and even racist," the report stated.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/342176_app04.html
Patrols make downtown safer
Extra policing will continue through next year
By SCOTT GUTIERREZ
P-I REPORTER
An infusion of police officers into downtown's central shopping district has decreased 911 calls and chased away many of the thugs and dope dealers who made the area feel unsafe.
Although crime swept out of the area around Pike and Pine streets has apparently moved into neighboring districts, the city is calling its experiment a success and intends to keep extra police on the downtown beat at least through next year.
Most people downtown attest to sharp reductions in loitering, panhandling and street thuggery since the police effort began in summer. And many had hoped the city would maintain the presence next year.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/342782_downtown08.html
4 shot outside Colorado Springs church
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- A gunman opened fire in the parking lot of a Colorado Springs church on Sunday, striking four people, the church's pastor said.
The conditions of the people shot outside the New Life Church were not known, El Paso County Sheriff's Lt. Lari Sevene said.
Lance Coles, a pastor at New Life Church, told The Associated Press he received a report that a man was shooting at people in the church parking lot and that the gunman may have entered the church.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1110ap_church_shooting.html
Group targeted in shooting has far reach
By ERIC GORSKI
AP RELIGION WRITER
DENVER -- Begun in 1960 after a 20-year-old college student said he experienced a vision from God, Youth With a Mission has grown into one of the world's most formidable Christian missions groups.
The group, characterized by a decentralized structure and reputation for attracting zealous young people, equips missionaries to spread the Christian faith around the world, including some of the world's most dangerous corners.
In the dark early hours of Sunday morning, what was supposed to be a safe harbor - a YWAM training center in suburban Denver - turned deadly when a gunman killed two staff members and injured two others.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1110ap_church_shootings_missionaries.html
South Korean spill hits seafood industry
By HYUNG-JIN KIM
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
SHINDURI BEACH, South Korea -- Chung Hwan-hyang surveyed the damage from South Korea's worst oil spill, saddened by the knowledge that the oyster farm she and her husband ran for 30 years was lost.
"My oysters are all dead," the 70-year-old woman said Sunday as she and thousands of others cleaned foul-smelling oil from Shinduri Beach. "I cried and cried last night. I don't know what to do."
Some 2.7 million gallons of crude gushed into the ocean after a collision Friday between a barge and a supertanker carrying more than 260,000 tons of crude oil.
For Chung and other residents of Taean County, nearly 100 miles southwest of Seoul, the spill brought despair and shock at how the pollution shattered lives and businesses.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1104ap_skorea_oil_spill.html
Scientists: Seaweed could stem warming
By JOSEPH COLEMAN
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
BALI, Indonesia -- Slimy, green and unsightly, seaweed and algae are among the humblest of plants.
A group of scientists at a climate conference in Bali say they could also be a potent weapon against global warming, capable of sucking damaging carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere at rates comparable to the mightiest rain forests.
"The ocean's role is neglected because we can't see the vegetation," said Chung Ik-kyo, a South Korean environmental scientist. "But under the sea, there is a lot of seaweed and sea grass that can take up carbon dioxide."
The seaweed research, backed by scientists in 12 Asian-Pacific countries, is part of a broad effort to calculate how much carbon is being absorbed from the atmosphere by plants, and to increase that through reforestation and other steps.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1104ap_seaweed_to_the_rescue.html
Suicide car bomber kills 8 in Pakistan
By ZARAR KHAN
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- A suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden car into a police outpost Sunday, killing eight people in an area where the military has been battling Islamic militants loyal to a fugitive cleric, an official said.
Five civilians - including two children - and three policemen died in the attack at the Nimgole post, the headquarters of pro-Taliban cleric Maulana Fazlullah, said chief military spokesman Maj. Gen. Arshad Waheed. Several others were wounded.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1104ap_pakistan_suicide_attack.html
Europe, Africa stuck on key issues
By BARRY HATTON
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
LISBON, Portugal -- The first summit between Europe and Africa in seven years came to an acrimonious end Sunday with leaders squabbling over human rights and no progress on a looming trade pact deadline.
Old divisions surfaced at the two-day summit as leaders swapped accusations over the crises in Zimbabwe and Darfur, and postcolonial tensions deepened over free trade deals.
The World Trade Organization has ruled that the EU's 30-year-old preferential trade agreement with Africa was unfair to other trading nations and violated international rules. New deals are meant to be finalized by Dec. 31.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1103ap_eu_africa_summit.html
Idaho test reactor opens to universities
By KEITH RIDLER
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
BOISE, Idaho -- The U.S. Department of Energy is making available to university researchers a nuclear reactor test facility in southeast Idaho so they might learn how to build better nuclear power plants.
The Idaho National Laboratory's Advanced Test Reactor earlier this week issued a call for proposals from universities to conduct irradiation experiments.
"There has been a resurgence of interest in commercial nuclear power," Ivonne Couret, public affairs officer with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said in an e-mail to The Associated Press. "The NRC has been very busy and has had an increase of applications received and expects to receive more in 2008."
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1501ap_nuclear_research.html
Canada reactor woes delay medical tests
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
TORONTO -- Thousands of cancer patients in the U.S., Canada and other countries have had their medical tests postponed because of a problem with a Canadian nuclear reactor that produces medical isotopes used to diagnose and treat such cases.
The isotope shortage is the result of a prolonged shutdown of the reactor in Chalk River, Ontario, which supplies about two-thirds of the multibillion-dollar medical isotopes market to hospitals around the world.
Doctors warned that a shortage of nuclear material due to the shutdown of the federally owned reactor is getting worse by the day, causing many patients to worry.
"Last week, I guess you could describe it as struggling. This week it's devastating, and next week potentially catastrophic," said Dr. Chris O'Brien, president of the Ontario Association of Nuclear Medicine.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1101ap_canada_nuclear_medicine.html
Venezuela's Chavez promises Belarus oil
By IAN JAMES
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
CARACAS, Venezuela -- President Hugo Chavez promised to supply the oil needs of Belarus for years to come Saturday and dismissed Western accusations that former Soviet republic's leader is a dictator.
Concluding his first visit to Venezuela, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko promised to help the South American country beef up its military.
Chavez said both he and his counterpart are wrongly labeled "dictators" by their critics.
"The international media dictatorship ... calls him 'Europe's last dictator,' and me the last dictator of Latin America. Here we are, the last dictators," Chavez said, laughing. "They demonize us ... (because) we're leading a process of liberating our nations, uniting our nations."
Venezuela and Belarus share similarly hostile stances toward Washington. The U.S. government calls the leftist Chavez a threat to Latin America's stability and Belarus an "outpost of tyranny," accusing Lukashenko of stifling dissent and free speech.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1102ap_venezuela_belarus.html
Sub-Saharan Africans cannot count blessings
LARRY DONOHUE
I am sitting by the fireplace. The aroma of freshly brewed Celebration Blend coffee, the newest offering from our son's Blue Star Coffee Roasters, competes with yet complements the bouquet from the cinnamon cider steeping on the stove.
We are mostly healthy. Our children and grandchildren seem happy as they pursue their life choices. Our great grandchild's choices seem limitless. Life is good for us.
The end-of-year holidays are a good time to recall how blessed we are that we were born in the Northern Hemisphere. Much of our comfort is tied to that lucky stroke of fate. Admittedly, we may have worked hard to get an education and may have worked hard in our professions and careers, but how different these holidays would be had our birth cry been sounded in sub-Saharan Africa.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/342717_firstperson10.html
Living Food: Cut farm subsidies
Thanks to a veto threat from President Bush, the U.S. Senate has a choice between wasting its time passing a subsidy-laden farm bill or making substantive reforms. For the sake of Americans' health, the Senate should have the courage to make major changes.
In its current form, the farm bill is as bloated as the waistlines of those who partake a bit too much in our super-sweetened, high-calorie and overprocessed food fare. When it begins voting on amendments as early as Tuesday, the Senate should choose to phase out the system of huge subsidies for major crops.
We don't like many of the president's veto threats, but he is right here. The subsidy system is outdated, favorable to rich farm owners and out of step with free and fair trade concepts.
Sens. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., and Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., have offered an excellent alternative that phases out subsidies -- in a different way than Bush has proposed -- while improving environmental programs and paying more attention to promoting healthy fruit and vegetable crops. Their plan deserves broad support, including from Washington's Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/342716_farmed.html
continued...
I was there this past summer. It's a wonderful restoration effort that Michael has put forth and the people of Traverse City are very happy.
...After numbers showed that the State was the largest grossing theater in the country for "Lars and the Real Girl" when it showed two weekends ago, this past weekend's screening of "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" also ranked high. The film made about four times the average of theaters showing it around the country, coming in third behind New York City and Honolulu.
"The studios are already calling to talk about the films we want to bring in the next few weeks," Moore said. "They only make so many prints, and they want their prints to go to the highest-grossing theaters."
Meanwhile, the Dec. 15 opening of the live Metropolitan Opera Theater series from New York sold out the day tickets went on sale and Jan. 1's "Hansel and Gretel" is nearly sold-out. Those buying are a mix of opera lovers and people who have never seen an opera before, Moore said.
In fact, Moore is hoping that the MET at the State, which runs through April 26, will prove to be a draw for winter and spring tourism.
"We started thinking about promoting it downstate: 'Come to Traverse City for an opera weekend,'" Moore said. "To do this during the non-tourist season has implications far beyond what any of us ever thought of."...
http://www.record-eagle.com/features/local_story_341100021.html
Morning Papers - continued...
Michael Moore Today
"It's a good feeling to know that you're respected..." -- Gun shop manager Chuck Lock
http://www.michaelmoore.com/
The Human Cost of OccupationEdited by Margaret Griffis :: Contact
American Military Casualties in Iraq
Date
Total
In Combat
American Deaths
Since war began (3/19/03):
3886
Since "Mission Accomplished" (5/1/03) (the list)
3747
Since Capture of Saddam (12/13/03):
3426
Since Handover (6/29/04):
3027
Since Election (1/31/05):
2449
http://www.antiwar.com/casualties/
Documented civilian deaths from violence
http://www.iraqbodycount.org/database/
Cheney makes shopping stop in Stuttgart
Associated Press
STUTTGART, AR — Vice President Cheney stopped by a Stuttgart hunting supply store Tuesday to pick up supplies while hunting in the heart of Arkansas’ duck country.
Television footage showed Cheney looking over a box of rounds as other shoppers walked past the vice president in Mack’s Prairie Wings. Store employees said it was Cheney’s third visit to the store in Stuttgart, a rural town that bills itself as the “duck capital of the world.”
“Mack’s is one of the great places in America for this sort of thing. I’m on their mailing list,” Cheney told Little Rock television state KATV. “I get the catalog all the time, so we had a little extra time today and thought we’d stop by.”
Mack’s manager Chuck Lock said it was business as usual during Cheney’s visit. Staffers said the vice president bought a pair of suspenders and some ammunition.
“It’s a good feeling to know that you’re respected that much from somebody of that sort,” Lock said.
Cheney spent about a half an hour at the store.
“Arkansas is one of the great hunting states in the country, especially for waterfowl and ducks, and so I get invited down here periodically,” Cheney said. “I can’t come all the time, but every once in a while, when I can, I do.”
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=10547
Curtains Rise Again
By Keith Schneider / New York Times
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. — When the director Michael Moore moved to northern Michigan from New York City in 2002, the marquee of the State Theater on Front Street here had been dark since 1978. It was a sullen space in this Great Lake city’s central business district.
Last month, the marquee woke up with a splendid billboard of blinking lights and a triumphant message. The message said “Mission Accomplished!” as Mr. Moore and hundreds of residents celebrated the opening of the nearly 11,000-square-foot State Theater as a year-round art-house movie theater.
The $850,000 renovation of the State Theater, which dates to 1916, when it opened as the Lyric, was led by Mr. Moore. He coaxed an army of volunteers and professional electricians, carpet installers, carpenters and other craftsman to execute the project in just six weeks.
Though it was a highly impressive endeavor by an Academy Award-winning director in his adopted community, it was not unique. The State is one of some two dozen historic movie and performing arts theater restorations occurring this year in small cities around the nation, according to the League of Historic American Theaters in Baltimore.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mikeinthenews/index.php?id=10544
December 5th, 2007 1:40 am
Bush probe remains on Ulster agenda
By Robert M. Miraldi / Kingston Daily Freeman
KINGSTON, NY - A special session of the Ulster County Legislature on Wednesday will include a proposed resolution urging Congress to create a committee to investigate the Bush administration on charges it violated the Constitution.
Offered by the Legislature's Efficiency, Reform and Governmental Affairs Committee, the resolution says President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have "violated laws of the United States by numerous acts, including misleading Congress and the public by alleging threats from the nation of Iraq to justify war, the countenance of torture of prisoners, the surveillance of American citizens beyond the reach of judicial review," and arbitrarily detaining citizens without charge and without allowing them their right to legal counsel.
"I think it's important to weigh in, because there have been serious constitutional abuses and the Bush administration has to be not only held accountable, future administrations need to know people are watching," said committee Chairman Gary Bischoff, D-Saugerties.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=10543
December 5th, 2007 1:23 am
U.S. Finds Iran Halted Its Nuclear Arms Effort in 2003
By Mark Mazzetti / New York Times
WASHINGTON, Dec. 3 — A new assessment by American intelligence agencies released Monday concludes that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 and that the program remains frozen, contradicting a judgment two years ago that Tehran was working relentlessly toward building a nuclear bomb.
The conclusions of the new assessment are likely to reshape the final year of the Bush administration, which has made halting Iran’s nuclear program a cornerstone of its foreign policy.
The assessment, a National Intelligence Estimate that represents the consensus view of all 16 American spy agencies, states that Tehran is likely to keep its options open with respect to building a weapon, but that intelligence agencies “do not know whether it currently intends to develop nuclear weapons.”
Iran is continuing to produce enriched uranium, a program that the Tehran government has said is intended for civilian purposes. The new estimate says that the enrichment program could still provide Iran with enough raw material to produce a nuclear weapon sometime by the middle of next decade, a timetable essentially unchanged from previous estimates.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=10542
December 5th, 2007 12:43 pm
Filmmaker puts Traverse City in spotlight
By Louis Aguilar / The Detroit News
TRAVERSE CITY, MI -- Filmmaker and liberal activist Michael Moore has found one place where he's not creating controversy -- this scenic upper Michigan Republican bastion.
The Oscar-winning local resident spearheaded the $850,000 renovation of a old downtown movie theater that is feeding this town's aspirations of becoming the "Ann Arbor of the north."
Many here hope that Moore and the newly reopened State Theater will tap into the affluent, educated empty-nesters who are turning this once-seasonal tourist town into an upscale village of culinary and cultural delights.
"This isn't about politics for me," Moore said. "It's about celebrating this beautiful state of ours, sharing the power of great film and really using a great old movie palace as both an economic power and a community gathering place."
Many businesses here say it's a critical moment for Traverse City, which, city officials say, now boasts a waiting list of more than 60 businesses looking to set up shop downtown.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mikeinthenews/index.php?id=10545
December 3rd, 2007 1:23 am
Impeachment walk: Vermonter hikes to DC to seek ouster of Bush, Cheney
By John Curran / Associated Press
BRATTLEBORO, VT — He's got waterproof, size-11EEEE New Balance sneakers, a bright yellow poncho and a plan. He's got outrage in his heart, a Web site in his name and much of his retirement savings sunk into his cause.
John Nirenberg, a 60-year-old Ph.D., author and academic, plans to walk from Boston to Washington, D.C., to confront House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in hopes of persuading Congress to take up the impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Cheney.
He's no activist, he says. He's not sure he'll make a difference. But he's going to try.
On Sunday, he'll hit the road from Faneuil Hall, walking 15 miles a day until he gets to Capitol Hill, making symbolic stops at the Statue of Liberty, Independence Hall and Trenton, N.J., as he makes his way to the U.S. Capitol.
Wearing a "Save the Constitution, Impeach Bush and Cheney," sandwich-board style sign, he hopes to rally support for an issue Pelosi has said is no longer on the table.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=10539
IMAGINE PEACE
http://www.imaginepeace.com/
Saturday, December 8th, 2007
Yoko Ono on the 27th Anniversary of John Lennon's Passing
Dear Friends,
This December 8th is the 27th anniversary of John Lennon's passing.
You are welcome to visit www.IMAGINEPEACE.com at any time on Dec 8th for a special message & video.
WAR IS OVER! artwork is now available for download at:
http://www.imaginepeace.com/downloads/WarIsOver.jpg
Print & display in your window, workplace, school, street, car, computer & elsewhere over the holiday season.
On December 8th, 11.15pm (your local time) remember John by taking a moment of quiet reflection. If you would like to play or sing the song "Imagine" and imagine a world of peace, just know that we are all together at that moment in every time zone, as IMAGINE PEACE makes its way around the world - every hour for 24 hours.
Send in stories & photos of what you did on December 8th to stories@imaginepeace.com for us, the family of Peace and Love, and tell us of your experiences. That would be lovely!
With deepest love
Yoko Ono Lennon
http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=939
Saturday, December 8th, 2007
'What is Peace?: Remembering John Ono Lennon' ...by Cindy Sheehan
Is peace just an absence of war?
That question begs another question: What is war?
Is war a “hot” conflict with bombs raining down on civilians? Is it covert action with undercover agents fomenting unrest and electoral rebellion? Is it crippling sanctions that target unarmed and un-protected civilians who become desperate for medicine when their child is dying of dysentery or hungry for food to fend off starvation?
Is war maintaining a large standing army and an over-bloated Ministry of War even in peacetime? Is war destroying our precarious environment for the sake of a comparative few to the detriment of the many? Is war recklessly using natural resources when there is a limited supply and many people are killed or enslaved so others can have diamond engagement rings or cheap crap at Wal-Mart?
http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=940
December 5th, 2007 12:37 pm
Curtains Rise Again
By Keith Schneider / New York Times
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. — When the director Michael Moore moved to northern Michigan from New York City in 2002, the marquee of the State Theater on Front Street here had been dark since 1978. It was a sullen space in this Great Lake city’s central business district.
Last month, the marquee woke up with a splendid billboard of blinking lights and a triumphant message. The message said “Mission Accomplished!” as Mr. Moore and hundreds of residents celebrated the opening of the nearly 11,000-square-foot State Theater as a year-round art-house movie theater.
The $850,000 renovation of the State Theater, which dates to 1916, when it opened as the Lyric, was led by Mr. Moore. He coaxed an army of volunteers and professional electricians, carpet installers, carpenters and other craftsman to execute the project in just six weeks.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mikeinthenews/index.php?id=10544
December 5th, 2007 12:43 pm
Filmmaker puts Traverse City in spotlight
By Louis Aguilar / The Detroit News
TRAVERSE CITY, MI -- Filmmaker and liberal activist Michael Moore has found one place where he's not creating controversy -- this scenic upper Michigan Republican bastion.
The Oscar-winning local resident spearheaded the $850,000 renovation of a old downtown movie theater that is feeding this town's aspirations of becoming the "Ann Arbor of the north."
Many here hope that Moore and the newly reopened State Theater will tap into the affluent, educated empty-nesters who are turning this once-seasonal tourist town into an upscale village of culinary and cultural delights.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mikeinthenews/index.php?id=10545
December 5th, 2007 1:40 am
Bush probe remains on Ulster agenda
By Robert M. Miraldi / Kingston Daily Freeman
KINGSTON, NY - A special session of the Ulster County Legislature on Wednesday will include a proposed resolution urging Congress to create a committee to investigate the Bush administration on charges it violated the Constitution.
Offered by the Legislature's Efficiency, Reform and Governmental Affairs Committee, the resolution says President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have "violated laws of the United States by numerous acts, including misleading Congress and the public by alleging threats from the nation of Iraq to justify war, the countenance of torture of prisoners, the surveillance of American citizens beyond the reach of judicial review," and arbitrarily detaining citizens without charge and without allowing them their right to legal counsel.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=10543
December 4th, 2007 9:15 pm
Anti-war demonstrators cited in Williston
By Matt Sutkoski / Burlington Free Press
WILLISTON, VT -- Thirteen demonstrators were arrested and cited for trespassing Friday at a Vermont Army National Guard recruiting office as dozens more protesters surrounded the building, opposing military recruiting in schools.
The protests grew from a campaign by students at Mount Mansfield Union High School in Jericho who object to military recruiters in their school and the requirement that high schools hand over student contact information to the recruiters.
Many of the protesters were taken to the Chittenden County Sheriff's Office, where they were to be processed and cited for trespassing Friday evening, Williston Police Chief James Dimmick said. Three juveniles were cited and released, he said.
The high school students organized Friday's demonstration, and other groups opposed to the war in Iraq joined the cause.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=10541
December 4th, 2007 1:55 am
Raging Grannies honk off Ferndale
Peace activists fight city over right to urge sympathetic drivers to toot horns
By Jennifer Chambers / Detroit News
FERNDALE, MI -- A close inspection of Nancy Goedert's picket sign shows she encourages passing drivers not to honk if they support peace.
Yet the 74-year-old social activist and her fellow vigil keepers, their signs hoisted high above Woodward Avenue, drew a symphony of beeps and toots from dozens of enthusiastic motorists for more than an hour on a recent weeknight, thanks to the bigger, bolder letters that spell out "HONK FOR PEACE" and spread Goedert's true message.
Despite Ferndale's controversial ban on honking in response to political protests, Goedert's smaller addendum -- "Ferndale cops say don't" -- allows Goedert to spread her anti-war message until a federal court decides whether honking car horns are a protected form of free speech.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=10540
December 7th, 2007 5:01 pm
Tour backs health plan
By Nanci Bompey / Asheville Citizen-Times
ASHEVILLE, NC – Liv Boykins has been traveling around the country in a school bus, sleeping in homeless shelters and in people’s homes, and eating food where she can find it.
Boykins, special assistant to Rep. John Conyers Jr., D-Mich., is one of five people who have been on the road since Nov. 12 to help promote the congressman’s bill calling for universal health care.
The group, sponsored by the organization Healthcare-NOW, stopped in Asheville Wednesday and Thursday to drum up support for the legislation.
“It is the only bill out there that will make health care a human right,” Boykins said. “You will be covered from the cradle to the grave.”
The legislation calls for expanding Medicare to all American citizens. It has 86 signatures from representatives in the U.S. House. No North Carolina representatives have signed on to the legislation.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=10548
December 7th, 2007 12:54 am
Cheney makes shopping stop in Stuttgart
Associated Press
STUTTGART, AR — Vice President Cheney stopped by a Stuttgart hunting supply store Tuesday to pick up supplies while hunting in the heart of Arkansas’ duck country.
Television footage showed Cheney looking over a box of rounds as other shoppers walked past the vice president in Mack’s Prairie Wings. Store employees said it was Cheney’s third visit to the store in Stuttgart, a rural town that bills itself as the “duck capital of the world.”
“Mack’s is one of the great places in America for this sort of thing. I’m on their mailing list,” Cheney told Little Rock television state KATV. “I get the catalog all the time, so we had a little extra time today and thought we’d stop by.”
Mack’s manager Chuck Lock said it was business as usual during Cheney’s visit. Staffers said the vice president bought a pair of suspenders and some ammunition.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=10547
H.RES.333
Title: Impeaching Richard B. Cheney, Vice President of the United States, for high crimes and misdemeanors.
Sponsor: Rep Kucinich, Dennis J. [OH-10] (introduced 4/24/2007) Cosponsors (23)
Related Bills: H.RES.799
Latest Major Action: 5/4/2007 Referred to House subcommittee. Status: Referred to the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties.
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:HE00333:@@@N
DC Address:
The Honorable Raul Grijalva
United States House of Representatives
1440 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515-0307
DC Phone:
202-225-2435
DC Fax:
202-225-1541
Email Address:
http://grijalva.house.gov/?sectionid=49§iontree=249
WWW Homepage:
http://grijalva.house.gov/
http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/cgi-bin/newmemberbio.cgi?lang=&member=AZ07&site=ctc&address=&city=&state=AZ&zipcode=&plusfour=
December 5th, 2007 1:23 am
U.S. Finds Iran Halted Its Nuclear Arms Effort in 2003
By Mark Mazzetti / New York Times
WASHINGTON, Dec. 3 — A new assessment by American intelligence agencies released Monday concludes that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 and that the program remains frozen, contradicting a judgment two years ago that Tehran was working relentlessly toward building a nuclear bomb.
The conclusions of the new assessment are likely to reshape the final year of the Bush administration, which has made halting Iran’s nuclear program a cornerstone of its foreign policy.
The assessment, a National Intelligence Estimate that represents the consensus view of all 16 American spy agencies, states that Tehran is likely to keep its options open with respect to building a weapon, but that intelligence agencies “do not know whether it currently intends to develop nuclear weapons.”
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=10542
SiCKO
http://www.michaelmoore.com/sicko/dvd/
SiCKO-Cure National Road Show
http://www.healthcare-now.org/healthcare_road_show.html
Tuesday, April 4th, 2006
Be It Resolved: You Can Impeach the President
Official State Impeachment Text
Impeachment Text for Cities & Towns
Impeachment Text for County Democratic Committees
Impeachment Text for State Assemblies and/or Legislatures
Jefferson's Manual, Section LIII, 603
You Can Impeach the President
http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=622
Thursday, July 26th, 2007
See the Movie, Start the Revolution ...a letter from Michael Moore
Friends,
I am overwhelmed by the response to "Sicko." And I'm not just talking about all the wonderful, heart-felt letters you've sent me and the stories you've shared with me about the abuse you've suffered from our health care system.
No, I'm talking about how thousands of you are taking matters into your own hands and using the movie to do something. From Seattle to New England, each day I learn of numerous groups holding meetings or dinners after the movie to discuss it and to plot a course for action. A church in Plano, TX took its weekly bible study group to see "Sicko." 70 people crammed into a Wisconsin coffee shop's back room. Groups are plotting over pancakes in Illinois and microbrew in Missouri. E-mail addresses are being exchanged in theater lobbies. A Connecticut group is inviting legislators to see "Sicko" and keeping a tally on their website. Local groups have been buying out theaters to have special screenings for their members. Information tables are set up, literature is distributed, action groups are formed.
It's all an amazing sight. I can't tell you how thrilled I am to see the impact a movie can have. For all of you who have written me to ask, "What can I do," well, read more about what others have done, and then try these simple steps:
1. Call or write you member of Congress right now (I'll wait) and tell him or her that you insist they become a co-sponsor of H.R. 676 -- "The United States National Health Insurance Act." It's sponsored currently by Rep. John Conyers and 76 other members of Congress. Insist that your congressperson be one of those co-sponsors. I want to see 100 co-sponsors by Thanksgiving. Will you help make that happen?
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/message/index.php?id=219
continued...
"It's a good feeling to know that you're respected..." -- Gun shop manager Chuck Lock
http://www.michaelmoore.com/
The Human Cost of OccupationEdited by Margaret Griffis :: Contact
American Military Casualties in Iraq
Date
Total
In Combat
American Deaths
Since war began (3/19/03):
3886
Since "Mission Accomplished" (5/1/03) (the list)
3747
Since Capture of Saddam (12/13/03):
3426
Since Handover (6/29/04):
3027
Since Election (1/31/05):
2449
http://www.antiwar.com/casualties/
Documented civilian deaths from violence
http://www.iraqbodycount.org/database/
Cheney makes shopping stop in Stuttgart
Associated Press
STUTTGART, AR — Vice President Cheney stopped by a Stuttgart hunting supply store Tuesday to pick up supplies while hunting in the heart of Arkansas’ duck country.
Television footage showed Cheney looking over a box of rounds as other shoppers walked past the vice president in Mack’s Prairie Wings. Store employees said it was Cheney’s third visit to the store in Stuttgart, a rural town that bills itself as the “duck capital of the world.”
“Mack’s is one of the great places in America for this sort of thing. I’m on their mailing list,” Cheney told Little Rock television state KATV. “I get the catalog all the time, so we had a little extra time today and thought we’d stop by.”
Mack’s manager Chuck Lock said it was business as usual during Cheney’s visit. Staffers said the vice president bought a pair of suspenders and some ammunition.
“It’s a good feeling to know that you’re respected that much from somebody of that sort,” Lock said.
Cheney spent about a half an hour at the store.
“Arkansas is one of the great hunting states in the country, especially for waterfowl and ducks, and so I get invited down here periodically,” Cheney said. “I can’t come all the time, but every once in a while, when I can, I do.”
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=10547
Curtains Rise Again
By Keith Schneider / New York Times
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. — When the director Michael Moore moved to northern Michigan from New York City in 2002, the marquee of the State Theater on Front Street here had been dark since 1978. It was a sullen space in this Great Lake city’s central business district.
Last month, the marquee woke up with a splendid billboard of blinking lights and a triumphant message. The message said “Mission Accomplished!” as Mr. Moore and hundreds of residents celebrated the opening of the nearly 11,000-square-foot State Theater as a year-round art-house movie theater.
The $850,000 renovation of the State Theater, which dates to 1916, when it opened as the Lyric, was led by Mr. Moore. He coaxed an army of volunteers and professional electricians, carpet installers, carpenters and other craftsman to execute the project in just six weeks.
Though it was a highly impressive endeavor by an Academy Award-winning director in his adopted community, it was not unique. The State is one of some two dozen historic movie and performing arts theater restorations occurring this year in small cities around the nation, according to the League of Historic American Theaters in Baltimore.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mikeinthenews/index.php?id=10544
December 5th, 2007 1:40 am
Bush probe remains on Ulster agenda
By Robert M. Miraldi / Kingston Daily Freeman
KINGSTON, NY - A special session of the Ulster County Legislature on Wednesday will include a proposed resolution urging Congress to create a committee to investigate the Bush administration on charges it violated the Constitution.
Offered by the Legislature's Efficiency, Reform and Governmental Affairs Committee, the resolution says President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have "violated laws of the United States by numerous acts, including misleading Congress and the public by alleging threats from the nation of Iraq to justify war, the countenance of torture of prisoners, the surveillance of American citizens beyond the reach of judicial review," and arbitrarily detaining citizens without charge and without allowing them their right to legal counsel.
"I think it's important to weigh in, because there have been serious constitutional abuses and the Bush administration has to be not only held accountable, future administrations need to know people are watching," said committee Chairman Gary Bischoff, D-Saugerties.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=10543
December 5th, 2007 1:23 am
U.S. Finds Iran Halted Its Nuclear Arms Effort in 2003
By Mark Mazzetti / New York Times
WASHINGTON, Dec. 3 — A new assessment by American intelligence agencies released Monday concludes that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 and that the program remains frozen, contradicting a judgment two years ago that Tehran was working relentlessly toward building a nuclear bomb.
The conclusions of the new assessment are likely to reshape the final year of the Bush administration, which has made halting Iran’s nuclear program a cornerstone of its foreign policy.
The assessment, a National Intelligence Estimate that represents the consensus view of all 16 American spy agencies, states that Tehran is likely to keep its options open with respect to building a weapon, but that intelligence agencies “do not know whether it currently intends to develop nuclear weapons.”
Iran is continuing to produce enriched uranium, a program that the Tehran government has said is intended for civilian purposes. The new estimate says that the enrichment program could still provide Iran with enough raw material to produce a nuclear weapon sometime by the middle of next decade, a timetable essentially unchanged from previous estimates.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=10542
December 5th, 2007 12:43 pm
Filmmaker puts Traverse City in spotlight
By Louis Aguilar / The Detroit News
TRAVERSE CITY, MI -- Filmmaker and liberal activist Michael Moore has found one place where he's not creating controversy -- this scenic upper Michigan Republican bastion.
The Oscar-winning local resident spearheaded the $850,000 renovation of a old downtown movie theater that is feeding this town's aspirations of becoming the "Ann Arbor of the north."
Many here hope that Moore and the newly reopened State Theater will tap into the affluent, educated empty-nesters who are turning this once-seasonal tourist town into an upscale village of culinary and cultural delights.
"This isn't about politics for me," Moore said. "It's about celebrating this beautiful state of ours, sharing the power of great film and really using a great old movie palace as both an economic power and a community gathering place."
Many businesses here say it's a critical moment for Traverse City, which, city officials say, now boasts a waiting list of more than 60 businesses looking to set up shop downtown.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mikeinthenews/index.php?id=10545
December 3rd, 2007 1:23 am
Impeachment walk: Vermonter hikes to DC to seek ouster of Bush, Cheney
By John Curran / Associated Press
BRATTLEBORO, VT — He's got waterproof, size-11EEEE New Balance sneakers, a bright yellow poncho and a plan. He's got outrage in his heart, a Web site in his name and much of his retirement savings sunk into his cause.
John Nirenberg, a 60-year-old Ph.D., author and academic, plans to walk from Boston to Washington, D.C., to confront House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in hopes of persuading Congress to take up the impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Cheney.
He's no activist, he says. He's not sure he'll make a difference. But he's going to try.
On Sunday, he'll hit the road from Faneuil Hall, walking 15 miles a day until he gets to Capitol Hill, making symbolic stops at the Statue of Liberty, Independence Hall and Trenton, N.J., as he makes his way to the U.S. Capitol.
Wearing a "Save the Constitution, Impeach Bush and Cheney," sandwich-board style sign, he hopes to rally support for an issue Pelosi has said is no longer on the table.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=10539
IMAGINE PEACE
http://www.imaginepeace.com/
Saturday, December 8th, 2007
Yoko Ono on the 27th Anniversary of John Lennon's Passing
Dear Friends,
This December 8th is the 27th anniversary of John Lennon's passing.
You are welcome to visit www.IMAGINEPEACE.com at any time on Dec 8th for a special message & video.
WAR IS OVER! artwork is now available for download at:
http://www.imaginepeace.com/downloads/WarIsOver.jpg
Print & display in your window, workplace, school, street, car, computer & elsewhere over the holiday season.
On December 8th, 11.15pm (your local time) remember John by taking a moment of quiet reflection. If you would like to play or sing the song "Imagine" and imagine a world of peace, just know that we are all together at that moment in every time zone, as IMAGINE PEACE makes its way around the world - every hour for 24 hours.
Send in stories & photos of what you did on December 8th to stories@imaginepeace.com for us, the family of Peace and Love, and tell us of your experiences. That would be lovely!
With deepest love
Yoko Ono Lennon
http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=939
Saturday, December 8th, 2007
'What is Peace?: Remembering John Ono Lennon' ...by Cindy Sheehan
Is peace just an absence of war?
That question begs another question: What is war?
Is war a “hot” conflict with bombs raining down on civilians? Is it covert action with undercover agents fomenting unrest and electoral rebellion? Is it crippling sanctions that target unarmed and un-protected civilians who become desperate for medicine when their child is dying of dysentery or hungry for food to fend off starvation?
Is war maintaining a large standing army and an over-bloated Ministry of War even in peacetime? Is war destroying our precarious environment for the sake of a comparative few to the detriment of the many? Is war recklessly using natural resources when there is a limited supply and many people are killed or enslaved so others can have diamond engagement rings or cheap crap at Wal-Mart?
http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=940
December 5th, 2007 12:37 pm
Curtains Rise Again
By Keith Schneider / New York Times
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. — When the director Michael Moore moved to northern Michigan from New York City in 2002, the marquee of the State Theater on Front Street here had been dark since 1978. It was a sullen space in this Great Lake city’s central business district.
Last month, the marquee woke up with a splendid billboard of blinking lights and a triumphant message. The message said “Mission Accomplished!” as Mr. Moore and hundreds of residents celebrated the opening of the nearly 11,000-square-foot State Theater as a year-round art-house movie theater.
The $850,000 renovation of the State Theater, which dates to 1916, when it opened as the Lyric, was led by Mr. Moore. He coaxed an army of volunteers and professional electricians, carpet installers, carpenters and other craftsman to execute the project in just six weeks.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mikeinthenews/index.php?id=10544
December 5th, 2007 12:43 pm
Filmmaker puts Traverse City in spotlight
By Louis Aguilar / The Detroit News
TRAVERSE CITY, MI -- Filmmaker and liberal activist Michael Moore has found one place where he's not creating controversy -- this scenic upper Michigan Republican bastion.
The Oscar-winning local resident spearheaded the $850,000 renovation of a old downtown movie theater that is feeding this town's aspirations of becoming the "Ann Arbor of the north."
Many here hope that Moore and the newly reopened State Theater will tap into the affluent, educated empty-nesters who are turning this once-seasonal tourist town into an upscale village of culinary and cultural delights.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mikeinthenews/index.php?id=10545
December 5th, 2007 1:40 am
Bush probe remains on Ulster agenda
By Robert M. Miraldi / Kingston Daily Freeman
KINGSTON, NY - A special session of the Ulster County Legislature on Wednesday will include a proposed resolution urging Congress to create a committee to investigate the Bush administration on charges it violated the Constitution.
Offered by the Legislature's Efficiency, Reform and Governmental Affairs Committee, the resolution says President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have "violated laws of the United States by numerous acts, including misleading Congress and the public by alleging threats from the nation of Iraq to justify war, the countenance of torture of prisoners, the surveillance of American citizens beyond the reach of judicial review," and arbitrarily detaining citizens without charge and without allowing them their right to legal counsel.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=10543
December 4th, 2007 9:15 pm
Anti-war demonstrators cited in Williston
By Matt Sutkoski / Burlington Free Press
WILLISTON, VT -- Thirteen demonstrators were arrested and cited for trespassing Friday at a Vermont Army National Guard recruiting office as dozens more protesters surrounded the building, opposing military recruiting in schools.
The protests grew from a campaign by students at Mount Mansfield Union High School in Jericho who object to military recruiters in their school and the requirement that high schools hand over student contact information to the recruiters.
Many of the protesters were taken to the Chittenden County Sheriff's Office, where they were to be processed and cited for trespassing Friday evening, Williston Police Chief James Dimmick said. Three juveniles were cited and released, he said.
The high school students organized Friday's demonstration, and other groups opposed to the war in Iraq joined the cause.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=10541
December 4th, 2007 1:55 am
Raging Grannies honk off Ferndale
Peace activists fight city over right to urge sympathetic drivers to toot horns
By Jennifer Chambers / Detroit News
FERNDALE, MI -- A close inspection of Nancy Goedert's picket sign shows she encourages passing drivers not to honk if they support peace.
Yet the 74-year-old social activist and her fellow vigil keepers, their signs hoisted high above Woodward Avenue, drew a symphony of beeps and toots from dozens of enthusiastic motorists for more than an hour on a recent weeknight, thanks to the bigger, bolder letters that spell out "HONK FOR PEACE" and spread Goedert's true message.
Despite Ferndale's controversial ban on honking in response to political protests, Goedert's smaller addendum -- "Ferndale cops say don't" -- allows Goedert to spread her anti-war message until a federal court decides whether honking car horns are a protected form of free speech.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=10540
December 7th, 2007 5:01 pm
Tour backs health plan
By Nanci Bompey / Asheville Citizen-Times
ASHEVILLE, NC – Liv Boykins has been traveling around the country in a school bus, sleeping in homeless shelters and in people’s homes, and eating food where she can find it.
Boykins, special assistant to Rep. John Conyers Jr., D-Mich., is one of five people who have been on the road since Nov. 12 to help promote the congressman’s bill calling for universal health care.
The group, sponsored by the organization Healthcare-NOW, stopped in Asheville Wednesday and Thursday to drum up support for the legislation.
“It is the only bill out there that will make health care a human right,” Boykins said. “You will be covered from the cradle to the grave.”
The legislation calls for expanding Medicare to all American citizens. It has 86 signatures from representatives in the U.S. House. No North Carolina representatives have signed on to the legislation.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=10548
December 7th, 2007 12:54 am
Cheney makes shopping stop in Stuttgart
Associated Press
STUTTGART, AR — Vice President Cheney stopped by a Stuttgart hunting supply store Tuesday to pick up supplies while hunting in the heart of Arkansas’ duck country.
Television footage showed Cheney looking over a box of rounds as other shoppers walked past the vice president in Mack’s Prairie Wings. Store employees said it was Cheney’s third visit to the store in Stuttgart, a rural town that bills itself as the “duck capital of the world.”
“Mack’s is one of the great places in America for this sort of thing. I’m on their mailing list,” Cheney told Little Rock television state KATV. “I get the catalog all the time, so we had a little extra time today and thought we’d stop by.”
Mack’s manager Chuck Lock said it was business as usual during Cheney’s visit. Staffers said the vice president bought a pair of suspenders and some ammunition.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=10547
H.RES.333
Title: Impeaching Richard B. Cheney, Vice President of the United States, for high crimes and misdemeanors.
Sponsor: Rep Kucinich, Dennis J. [OH-10] (introduced 4/24/2007) Cosponsors (23)
Related Bills: H.RES.799
Latest Major Action: 5/4/2007 Referred to House subcommittee. Status: Referred to the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties.
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:HE00333:@@@N
DC Address:
The Honorable Raul Grijalva
United States House of Representatives
1440 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515-0307
DC Phone:
202-225-2435
DC Fax:
202-225-1541
Email Address:
http://grijalva.house.gov/?sectionid=49§iontree=249
WWW Homepage:
http://grijalva.house.gov/
http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/cgi-bin/newmemberbio.cgi?lang=&member=AZ07&site=ctc&address=&city=&state=AZ&zipcode=&plusfour=
December 5th, 2007 1:23 am
U.S. Finds Iran Halted Its Nuclear Arms Effort in 2003
By Mark Mazzetti / New York Times
WASHINGTON, Dec. 3 — A new assessment by American intelligence agencies released Monday concludes that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 and that the program remains frozen, contradicting a judgment two years ago that Tehran was working relentlessly toward building a nuclear bomb.
The conclusions of the new assessment are likely to reshape the final year of the Bush administration, which has made halting Iran’s nuclear program a cornerstone of its foreign policy.
The assessment, a National Intelligence Estimate that represents the consensus view of all 16 American spy agencies, states that Tehran is likely to keep its options open with respect to building a weapon, but that intelligence agencies “do not know whether it currently intends to develop nuclear weapons.”
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=10542
SiCKO
http://www.michaelmoore.com/sicko/dvd/
SiCKO-Cure National Road Show
http://www.healthcare-now.org/healthcare_road_show.html
Tuesday, April 4th, 2006
Be It Resolved: You Can Impeach the President
Official State Impeachment Text
Impeachment Text for Cities & Towns
Impeachment Text for County Democratic Committees
Impeachment Text for State Assemblies and/or Legislatures
Jefferson's Manual, Section LIII, 603
You Can Impeach the President
http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=622
Thursday, July 26th, 2007
See the Movie, Start the Revolution ...a letter from Michael Moore
Friends,
I am overwhelmed by the response to "Sicko." And I'm not just talking about all the wonderful, heart-felt letters you've sent me and the stories you've shared with me about the abuse you've suffered from our health care system.
No, I'm talking about how thousands of you are taking matters into your own hands and using the movie to do something. From Seattle to New England, each day I learn of numerous groups holding meetings or dinners after the movie to discuss it and to plot a course for action. A church in Plano, TX took its weekly bible study group to see "Sicko." 70 people crammed into a Wisconsin coffee shop's back room. Groups are plotting over pancakes in Illinois and microbrew in Missouri. E-mail addresses are being exchanged in theater lobbies. A Connecticut group is inviting legislators to see "Sicko" and keeping a tally on their website. Local groups have been buying out theaters to have special screenings for their members. Information tables are set up, literature is distributed, action groups are formed.
It's all an amazing sight. I can't tell you how thrilled I am to see the impact a movie can have. For all of you who have written me to ask, "What can I do," well, read more about what others have done, and then try these simple steps:
1. Call or write you member of Congress right now (I'll wait) and tell him or her that you insist they become a co-sponsor of H.R. 676 -- "The United States National Health Insurance Act." It's sponsored currently by Rep. John Conyers and 76 other members of Congress. Insist that your congressperson be one of those co-sponsors. I want to see 100 co-sponsors by Thanksgiving. Will you help make that happen?
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/message/index.php?id=219
continued...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)