12/15/00
9:14:21 PM

FAIR-L Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting Media analysis, critiques and news reports

ACTIVISM UPDATE: AOL/Time Warner Merger Approved

December 15, 2000

On December 14, the Federal Trade Commission voted unanimously to approve the merger of Time Warner and America Online, creating the world's largest media company.

The deal was the source of intense lobbying by citizen groups like Consumers Union and the Center for Media Education, as well as major media companies like Disney and Microsoft; FAIR activists sent hundreds of letters criticizing the merger to the FTC.

In the end, some provisions of the deal were considered victories for consumers: For example, the consent decree requires that access to Time Warner's cable lines be granted to at least three other internet service providers. High-speed internet access was the issue that FAIR's January alert encouraged activists to raise with the FTC.

But larger questions about media diversity remain. The FTC did little to address concerns that the media giant would engage in extensive promotion of its own content, sometimes to the exclusion of other content. As the New York Times reports (12/15/00), "Beyond high-speed Internet service, the terms announced yesterday do little to impede AOL Time Warner."

A Washington Post report (12/14/00) outlined some of the policies that are already in place: "AOL users who want to check out music or television reviews are steered to Time Warner's Entertainment Weekly Web site. If they want the latest news on celebrities their mouse will take them to Time Warner's People.com. And AOL users who seek the latest developments in the presidential election will find that Time Warner's CNN.com and Time.com are prominent options."

The Post also reported that one AOL executive says that the cross promotions between the companies have generated 500,000 new Time Warner magazine subscriptions in just five months. It's just the tip of the iceberg: As one industry analyst told the Post, "They have not yet begun to cross-promote."

The merger certainly is a milestone in media concentration, and threatens to make the era of new media more rather than less centralized. The new corporation will certainly receive continued scrutiny from FAIR.

For more background and history on the merger, please visit: http://www.fair.org/media-outlets/time-warner.html

12/15/00
6:08:45 PM

This Week in The Nation

There's lots of new material currently at http://www.thenation.com

ON VERDICT 2000:

THE NATION EDITORS: No Honeymoon http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20010101&s=editors

JONATHAN SCHELL: A Force To Reckon With http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20010101&s=schell

ERIC FONER: Partisanship Rules http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20010101&s=foner

HERMAN SCHWARTZ: The God That Failed http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20010101&s=schwartz

ANNA GREENBERG: Why The Polls Were Wrong http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20010101&s=greenberg

DAVID CORN: Prince Al http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20010101&s=corn

ON ALAN GREENSPAN AND THE FED

WILLIAM GREIDER: Father Greenspan Loves Us All http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20010101&s=greider

ON NORTH KOREA:

CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS: Rogue Washington http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20010101&s=hitchens

We've also dug up some testimony alleging that Chief Justice William Rehnquist was actively involved in reducing the number of minority voters through confusion and intimidation while working as a poll-worker in Arizona in 1962. These allegations were raised by a former assistant US Attorney General in Phoenix, James Brosnahan, during Rehnquist's Congressional confirmation hearings for Chief Justice in 1986. You can read his statement currently on The Nation's website at:

http://www.thenation.com/special/20010101rehnquist.mhtml

12/15/00
6:07:11 PM

Here are today's Reuters 'World Environment News' headlines, proudly brought to you by Planet Ark.

Doing environmental research? Search our news archives at: http://www.planetark.org/searchhome.cfm

No clear message yet on GMO safety, report finds - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9324

US to cut mercury emissions from coal-fired plants - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9325

FACTBOX - Bush likely to bring US energy policy changes - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9329

Clinton urged to put Arctic refuge off limits to drilling - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9330

Greenpeace wants all Chernobyl-type plants to shut - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9323

Buy umbrellas, sell pullovers? - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9327

Biomass energy taps the past to fuel the future - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9328

Policy not cash main block to wind power growth - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9331

Brazilian fights for trees - and perfume industry - BRAZIL http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9326

12/15/00
6:04:33 PM

EcoNet Alerts: December 15, 2000

Technological Globalization Forum in February

This February, at Hunter College, we present the first event to spotlight the interfaces between technology, global corporations and economic globalization itself. Forty-five of the world's leading activists, thinkers and writers on these subjects will speak and lead workshops questioning what is being gained, and lost, and to ask if we need a change of direction. Read More... http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enalerts/976854215/index_html

Y2K+1 Anti-Corruption Protest

This December 30th 2000 to January 2nd 2001, the Y2K+1 Anti-Corruption Protest will be happening. We will be protesting, marching and shouting against the corruption by authority and capitalism. Read More... http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enalerts/976854381/index_html

NRDC Earth Actions: Snowmobile Rider, Stellar's Sea Lions, Everglades Airport, Hawaiian Ocean Wilderness

a) ANTI-ENVIRONMENT RIDERS: Tell Congress to i. Say No to the snowmobile rider ii. Save endangered Steller sea lions b) FLORIDA EVERGLADES: Tell President Clinton to protect the Everglades from a proposed commercial airport c) OCEAN WILDERNESS: Support the presidents proposal to protect Hawaiis ocean wilderness Read More... http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enalerts/976854882/index_html

EcoNet Headlines: December 15, 2000

European Support Sought in Ecuadorian Indigenous People's Case against Texaco

The Spanish organisation Medicus Mundi launched a campaign Wednesday to gather European support for a lawsuit filed by Ecuadorian indigenous peoples against the US- based oil giant Texaco, charging that the company's activities have harmed the environment and human health in the South American country's Amazon region. Read More... http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enheadlines/976850198/index_html

Outcry Over U.S. Chemical Shipment to India

Reports that a large amount of mercury will be shipped from the United States to India are raising the ire of environmentalists and some regional officials who argue that the toxic metal should be safely stored here and not exported. Read More... http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enheadlines/976850351/index_html

Asian Elephants Need Aid from Wealthy Nations

Wealthy countries must provide technical and financial assistance to help resolve the habitat clash between humans and elephants, which threatens the very survival of the gigantic mammals in Asia, says the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Read More... http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enheadlines/976850476/index_html

Angola's Relocated Wildlife under Armed Guard

While Angola's brutal civil war continues, conservationists are working with the country's military to reintroduce elephants, antelope and other species that once roamed the country's 10 national parks. Read More... http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enheadlines/976850616/index_html

Hawk Falls Prey to UK Grouse Hunters

Grouse hunting is threatening the existence of a hawk known in the UK as the hen harrier. Read More... http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enheadlines/976850731/index_html

Earth Tremors Jolt Debate on India's Big Dams

A recent series of moderate earthquakes in central India, close to the site of a big dam, has again stirred a raging debate over whether the country should go for mammoth dam projects. Read More... http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enheadlines/976850883/index_html

Wealthy Nations Urged to Reform Export Finance Agencies

Private-sector projects in developing countries backed by the export finance agencies of wealthy nations are harming the environment and human rights, charged a US conservation group here Wednesday that is calling for reform of these financial institutions. Read More... http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enheadlines/976851026/index_html

New Study Shows Global Warming Trend Greater without El Niño and Volcanic Influences

Removing the masking effects of volcanic eruptions and El Niño events from the global mean temperature record has reveals a more gradual and yet stronger global warming trend over the last century, according to a new analysis by Tom Wigley, a climate expert at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). Read More... http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enheadlines/976851368/index_html

Timber Program Continues to Decline Thanks to Forest Activists

Thanks to the efforts of forest activists like you, the federal timber sale program continues to decline. The volume cut on the National Forests in Fiscal Year (FY) 2000 fell 13% to 2.5 billion board feet. In the future we can expect that the cut will continue to fall because the volume sold in FY 2000 dropped 21% to 1.7 billion board feet. Read More... http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enheadlines/976852141/index_html

GREEN: Court Hearing Appeal of Dolphin-Safe Standards

A federal appeals court is considering whether to overturn a lower court ruling that stopped the Commerce Department from weakening the labeling standards for "dolphin-safe" tuna says the S.F. Chronicle 12/12. Read More... http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enheadlines/976852499/index_html

FOE Suggests: Keep Christmas Local!

Get your Christmas dinner from local farmers this year. Shop locally this Christmas. That's the seasonal message from Friends of the Earth this year. Read More... http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enheadlines/976853391/index_html

12/15/00
6:03:00 PM

Public Citizen press release

Angela Bradbery

ABRADBERY@citizen.org

Dec. 15, 2000

Internet Critic of Atlanta Company Should Remain Anonymous, Public Citizen Tells Court

Identities of People Who Post Anonymous Messages on the Internet Should Not Be Disclosed

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A Georgia court should block an Internet consulting firm's efforts to learn the identity of a man who anonymously posted comments about the company on an Internet message board, Public Citizen has told the court.

The firm, Atlanta-based iXL Enterprises, sued to learn the name of an individual who posted comments on a Yahoo! message board about the reasons for the company's declining fortunes. After filing its lawsuit, iXL obtained a subpoena that it served to Yahoo! to learn the person's name. Public Citizen is representing the individual, identified in court papers only as John Doe.

iXL's efforts violate the man's First Amendment rights, as well as his privacy rights under the Georgia Constitution, Public Citizen said in a brief filed on Monday in the Superior Court of Fulton County.

"iXL is attempting to use the court as a private detective service, to locate a member of the public who has engaged in speech critical of the company" said Paul Alan Levy, an attorney for Public Citizen Litigation Group, which is representing Doe. "It's a blatant attempt not only to violate this man's rights but to intimidate other people from expressing themselves freely."

In its complaint, iXL alleges that Doe is an iXL employee and that his postings violated an employment agreement. However, Doe is not an iXL employee and has produced evidence to prove it, the brief says. iXL also claims that Doe made false and derogatory statements containing confidential business information, but the company has not said what those statements were. Nor did the company say that Doe's comments damaged the company in any way. Further, company officers had adequate chance to post their own rebuttal to the man's comments, Public Citizen said.

The Internet, Levy argued, is "a forum for public discourse on any subject. People have a right to participate in public debates, and that's just what these message boards are -- ongoing public debates."

Doe posted a number of messages on the iXL chat site, some of which were critical of iXL or staff members. Others were complimentary, but none were "even arguably defamatory," the brief states. When Yahoo! contacted Doe to alert him to iXL's court action, Doe contacted the company's lawyer and was promised that iXL would drop its court action if Doe could prove he was not an iXL employee. Levy, of Public Citizen, followed up with the company's attorney, but he has refused to discuss the matter, claiming "the existence of other pressing business," the brief states.

Doe is concerned that the lawsuit could cost him his current job if his employer were to learn about it, the brief states.

Public Citizen filed the brief because it champions free speech rights. The non-profit consumer advocacy organization has defended the right of anonymity in several similar suits, including one filed by Thomas & Betts Corporation, a Tennessee manufacturer of electrical components, and another filed by Dendrite International, a New Jersey supplier of sales force software products and support services for the pharmaceutical industry.

The Tennessee company dismissed the case with a statement that it did not want to chill free speech on the Internet. In the New Jersey case, a court in November rejected the company's attempt to discover the identities of the anonymous Internet message posters, saying the company had failed to meet the stringent legal standards required for them to obtain those names.

Also representing Doe in the current case are Jeffrey D. Sodko and Robert S. Giolito of Stanford, Fagan & Giolito in Atlanta.

12/15/00
6:00:54 PM

CLEANEST & GREENEST COMPANIES IN THE USA

The Councel Economic Prioities has ranked 200 U.S. companies in 14 industries on their environmental performance. CEP compares companies based on: environmental impact (46% of overall score); environmental management systems (34%); corporate environmental reports (10%); and compliance records (10%). Over a third of a company's total score is based on toxic releases generated per dollar sales over three years. They also look at whether the trend in those releases is up or down during that time. Revlon, Westvaco, Archer Daniels Midland, Maytag, Ralston Purina, and Nabisco are among the worst-ranked companies. Top-Rated Companies are:

- Airlines: Delta Air Lines, American, United - Beverages: PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, Anheuser-Busch - Chemicals: DuPont, Dow Chemical, Occidental Petroleum - Computers: Compaq, IBM, Sun Microsystems - Electronics: Rockwell International, Micron Technology, AMP - Food Retailers: Great Atlantic & Pacific, Albertson's, Giant Food - Food Processors: Dole Food, Kellogg, H.J. Heinz - Forest Products: Kimberly-Clark, Louisiana-Pacific, International Paper - Petroleum: Sunoco, Chevron, Texaco - Pharmaceutical: Allergan, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Johnson & Johnson - Scientific, Photo, Control Equipment: Baxter International, Honeywell, Perkin-Elmer - Semiconductors: Intel, Advanced Micro Devices, Applied Materials - Personal Care: Avon Products, Procter & Gamble, Colgate-Palmolive - Telecommunications: AT&T, Bell Atlantic, SBC Communications

SKI AREAS GRADED ON ENVIRONMENTAL PRACTICES

Skiers have a choice this winter between truly environmentally friendly resorts and those whose "green" practices are more of a snow job. A coalition of grassroots conservation groups on Wednesday released a "scorecard" report that grades commercial ski areas throughout the west on a host of environmental criteria. For full text and graphics visit: http://ens.lycos.com/ens/nov2000/2000L-11-30-06.html

12/15/00
5:59:56 PM

LUNA NEEDS HELP AND OTHER FORESTRY AND FISHERIES ISSUES

Update on the Terrorist Luna Attack & How You Can Help

Julia Butterfly Hill says that she can truly feel all the prayers and love that people have been sending to help heal Luna. Many wonderful people have asked what they can do to help during this sad time. After Luna's terrorist attack, an incredible team of arborists, foresters, mechanical engineers and plant specialists has been assembled to help find creative solutions to ensure Luna's longevity.

Luna is an over one-thousand year old tree that had previously survived a fire which created two caves at her noble trunk. The chainsaw cut through two-thirds of her base destroying a significant portion of the cambium layer, sapwood and heartwood. Because redwoods are extremely rot-resistant the cut itself is not a mortal wound but she is extremely vulnerable to windstorms that rage on the North Coast. Her vascular system has been severely compromised. Currently, Luna is stabilized by bracing which will hopefully provide structural integrity so she can weather the winter storms and have her massive trunk firmly attached to her root system.

Future care will include conducting a massive amount of research regarding grafting and tissue regeneration; potentially creating a temporary walkway so the "medical" team and monitors will not impact the tree's root system; and ongoing monitoring to see how the tree is responding to treatment and to try to prevent this type of violent attack from happening again. Before this crime occurred we had planned on raising $50,000 for the Luna Preservation Endowment to monitor the tree in perpetuity. Now more than ever, funds need to be raised to protect the tree and all that she stands for.

On the legal front Sanctuary Forest has hired an independent criminal investigator to find the perpetrator of this hate crime against nature. A private detective is being hired to facilitate a thorough investigation. The costs of immediate treatment for the tree, a legal investigation, and ongoing monitoring efforts will likely exceed the $50,000 endowment that we initially envisioned.

If you would like to make a tax-deductible donation to the Luna Protection Fund, please write a check to Sanctuary Forest and write Luna Protection Fund-DS in the top of your memo. Please mail the check to the Circle of Life Foundation, PO Box 1940, Redway, CA 95560. You can contact Sanctuary Forest at (707) 986-1087 or sanctuary@asis.com

Thank you for helping to uphold what Luna stands for: perseverance, strength and healing. This collaborative effort is not just about saving the world's most famous tree. Luna is and will always be a reminder that just three percent of the ancient redwoods remain and these sentinels deserve our respect and protection.

CHAIN SAWS TO RIP SPOTTED OWL HABITAT

The BLM in Oregon has given the go ahead to log ancient forests where "at least one pair--and as many as three pairs--of northern spotted owls nest" says AP 12/5. Under the Northwest Forest Plan even trees where the owls nest can be logged as long as it is not done in the summer when they are raising their young. Such logging still makes the trees "unavailable to owls in future years, when the birds often return to familiar trees or stands." Environmentalists contend that the logging exposes the plan's flaws: as options for supplying commercial timber run out, the agency can begin to offer timber sales in "matrix lands" that are actually occupied by the owls.

ENDANGERED SALMON UPDATE - ACTION NEEDED NOW!

President Clinton has only a few weeks left to decide whether to save wild Snake River salmon or allow them to become extinct, turning them into museum artifacts. To prevent the extinction of these legendary fish, President Clinton ought to follow the science and choose dam removal as the right path for their recovery. Read More... http://headlines.igc.apc.org:8080/enalerts/976235256/index_html

ACCURATE SALMON COUNT DEMANDED

A "provocative new report" by independent experts urges more money for "counting fish and monitoring" to see if recovery measures are actually working says the Seattle Post-Intelligencer 12/4. According to the "15 independent experts from Canada and the U..S." billions of dollars are spent on some 200 restoration efforts to save the Northwest salmon yet "none" count fish or adequately "monitor cause and effect to validate the efficacy of the approaches used." While fish managers "have resisted" counting salmon as "costly and difficult," Alaska and British Columbia have "done so successfully for decades."

CAVIAR CRISIS LOOMS AS STURGEON NUMBERS DWINDLE

Caviar, long a symbol of luxury, is emerging instead as a sign of environmental mismanagement as Caspian Sea sturgeon populations - source of much of the world's caviar - plummet. As sales of caviar increase this holiday season, environmental groups are warning that demand for the prized treat could drive the long lived fish to extinction.

12/15/00
5:58:16 PM

GET YOUR SOLAR KICKS ON ROUTE 66...

Solar-powered cars will race the 2,300 legendary miles of Route 66 from Chicago, Illinois, to Los Angeles, California, during the American Solar Challenge July 15-25, 2001. Route 66 is where many Americans developed their passion for cars and the open road. Race organizers hope the event will not only conjure nostalgia but also show how renewable energy can fuel the passion of a pasttime. Registration is open to universities, companies, clubs and individuals from around the world.

LARGEST PRIVATE COMMERCIAL SOLAR SYSTEM IN WESTERN HEMISPHERE

The largest private commercial solar power system in the Western Hemisphere was dedicated last week in California. The solar installation involves almost one acre of advanced solar photovoltaic (PV) panels on the roof of the three story City Center office building in Fountain Valley and on the roof of the Carlsbad Pointe industrial building in Orange County.

The Fountain Valley building is owned by Arden Realty of Los Angeles. Dan Cashdan, chairman of RealEnergy Corp. of Los Angeles, commented "Distributed generation systems offering reliable, high quality, economical energy, are an extremely attractive hedge against a repeat of the near disasters of last summer. And they're a clean source, offsetting the creation of tons of toxins produced by old central power plants."

"Given the brownouts in San Diego, San Francisco, Chicago and elsewhere last summer, buildings with reliable power will increasingly be seen as premium, preferred locations," explains Richard Ziman, chairman and CEO of Arden Realty, the largest commercial real estate landlord in Southern California. "Distributed generation supports the environment and our tenants. Companies dependent on their computer systems or who have global 24/7 operations increasingly are recognizing they are at risk to a serious or even fatal business interruption tied to poor quality power."

"Although solar electricity costs roughly 15 cents per kilowatt hour delivered versus traditional regulated power ranging from three to 12 cents under tariff, solar competes on a time of use basis with peak demand, peak price kilowatts on any given day," says Paul Slye, president of RealEnergy. "Many property owners and operators appreciate the risk management tool that solar represents." "Peak period grid delivered power costs 19 cents per kWh in certain municipalities, and runs as high as 27 or more in investor owned utility service territories," he notes. "Fixing the all in cost for power with solar at 15 cents per kWh can help stabilize budgets and effectively cap energy outlays. This feature is gaining value in regions outside of San Diego as more utilities abandon old tariff rate schedules and customers are exposed to the real price of power."

The Fountain Valley and Carlsbad systems, which generate approximately 545,500 kWh annually, will offset the burning of 41,300 barrels of oil, or 12,000 tons coal, or 2600 million cubic feet of natural gas over the first 30 years than traditional fossil fuel power sources. That also means sparing the air with 9,300 fewer tons of harmful cumulative emissions.

U.S. GOVERNMENT DEMONSTRATES COMMITMENT TO RENEWABLES

A 2,800-panel, 100 kW multi-celled thin-film PV system is now installed at the U.S. General Services Administration's Suitland, Maryland Federal Center. Through the Million Solar Roofs initiative over 100,000 solar roofs have been installed since 1997 - nearly double the goal of 51,000 solar roofs by 2000. The federal government also exceeded the goal set forth in President Clinton's Executive Order 13123, which requires 2,000 solar energy systems be installed on federal buildings by the end of 2000. 2,100 systems are operational now - the government plans to meets its goal of 20,000 PV system installations by 2010.

In early 2002, the U.S. EPA's Environmental Science Center - the federal government's principal environmental laboratory - at Fort Meade, Maryland will be powered by the most efficient on-site power plant in the world. The fuel cell-gas turbine hybrid power system will be built by the Siemens-Westinghouse Power Corporation. Says U.S. DOE Secretary Richardson, "The Fort Meade project will preview a future of 'good neighbor' power generators that can be sited at or near the customer."

12/15/00
5:41:17 PM

SOLAR IS BREAKING OUT ALL OVER...

Siemens Solar Ships 200 Megawatts of Photovoltaics Worldwide in 2000

Siemens Solar in 2000 has shipped solar cells and solar modules with a cumulative peak power of 200 megawatts. Siemens Solar has been producing solar cells and solar modules for more than 20 years, reaching the 100 megawatts milestone in 1996 and was able to double this figure in just four years. Examples of power stations are the Mont Soleil project in Switzerland and Kerman in California, each with an output of 500 kilowatts, and the one-megawatt installation at the New Munich Trade Fair Center. With a module surface area of around 7,800 square meters, this is the largest rooftop solar power plant in the world. The cumulative figure for solar cells and modules supplied to date by Siemens Solar is equivalent to 200 times the output of this reference installation. Approximately 200 megawatts would be sufficient to supply light, water and refrigerated vaccines to over 10 million people in remote off-grid areas of developing countries.

In Japan and Germany, in particular, incentive schemes for renewable energies are speeding up growth in the photovoltaics sector. The current development of the world market is also prompting Siemens Solar to invest large sums in expanding its existing production facilities. Compared to last year, the company has increased month production by around 50%. Monthly production currently stands at some 3 megawatts. If the market continues to grow at its current pace, production will have to double every three or four years to enable market participants to retain their shares.

12/15/00
5:24:55 PM

An Easy To Read Analysis Of The Supreme Court Decision By Mark Levine <MarkLevine@aol.com>

Q: I'm not a lawyer and I don't understand the recent Supreme Court decision in Bush v. Gore. Can you explain it to me?

A: Sure. I'm a lawyer. I read it. It says Bush wins, even if Gore got the most votes.

Q: But wait a second. The US Supreme Court has to give a reason, right?

A: Right.

Q: So Bush wins because hand-counts are illegal?

A: Oh no. Six of the justices (two-thirds majority) believed the hand-counts were legal and should be done.

Q: Oh. So the justices did not believe that the hand-counts would find any legal ballots?

A. Nope. The five conservative justices clearly held (and all nine justices agreed) "that punch card balloting machines can produce an unfortunate number of ballots which are not punched in a clean, complete way by the voter." So there are legal votes that should be counted but can't be.

Q: Oh. Does this have something to do with states' rights? Don't conservatives love that?

A: Generally yes. These five justices have held that the federal government has no business telling a sovereign state university it can't steal trade secrets just because such stealing is prohibited by law. Nor does the federal government have any business telling a state that it should bar guns in schools. Nor can the federal government use the equal protection clause to force states to take measures to stop violence against women.

Q: Is there an exception in this case?

A: Yes, the Gore exception. States have no rights to have their own state elections when it can result in Gore being elected President. This decision is limited to only this situation.

Q: C'mon. The Supremes didn't really say that. You're exaggerating.

A: Nope. They held "Our consideration is limited to the present circumstances, or the problem of equal protection in election processes generally presents many complexities."

Q: What complexities?

A: They don't say.

Q: I'll bet I know the reason. I heard Jim Baker say this. The votes can't be counted because the Florida Supreme Court "changed the rules of the election after it was held." Right?

A. Dead wrong. The US Supreme Court made clear that the Florida Supreme Court did not change the rules of the election. But the US Supreme Court found the failure of the Florida Court to change the rules was wrong.

Q: Huh?

A: The Legislature declared that the only legal standard for counting vote is "clear intent of the voter." The Florida Court was condemned for not adopting a clearer standard.

Q: I thought the Florida Court was not allowed to change the Legislature's law after the election.

A: Right.

Q: So what's the problem?

A: They should have. The US Supreme Court said the Florida Supreme Court should have "adopt[ed] adequate statewide standards for determining what is a legal vote"

Q: I thought only the Legislature could "adopt" new law.

A: Right.

Q: So if the Court had adopted new standards, I thought it would have been overturned.

A: Right. You're catching on.

Q: If the Court had adopted new standards, it would have been overturned for changing the rules. And if it didn't, it's overturned for not changing the rules. That means that no matter what the Florida Supreme Court did, legal votes could never be counted.

A: Right. Next question.

Q: Wait, wait. I thought the problem was "equal protection," that some counties counted votes differently from others. Isn't that a problem?

A: It sure is. Across the nation, we vote in a hodgepodge of systems. Some, like the optical-scanners in largely Republican-leaning counties record 99.7% of the votes. Some, like the punchcard systems in largely Democratic-leaning counties record only 97% of the votes. So approximately 3% of Democratic votes are thrown in the trash can.

Q: Aha! That's a severe equal-protection problem!!!

A: No it's not. The Supreme Court wasn't worried about the 3% of Democratic ballots thrown in the trashcan in Florida. That "complexity" was not a problem.

Q: Was it the butterfly ballots that violated Florida law and tricked more than 20,000 Democrats to vote for Buchanan or Gore and Buchanan.

A: Nope. The Supreme Court has no problem believing that Buchanan got his highest, best support in a precinct consisting of a Jewish old age home with Holocaust survivors, who apparently have changed their mind about Hitler.

Q: Yikes. So what was the serious equal protection problem?

A: The problem was neither the butterfly ballot nor the 3% of Democrats (largely African-American) disenfranchised. The problem is that somewhat less than .005% of the ballots may have been determined under slightly different standards because judges sworn to uphold the law and doing their best to accomplish the legislative mandate of "clear intent of the voter" may have a slightly opinion about the voter's intent.

Q: Hmmm. OK, so if those votes are thrown out, you can still count the votes where everyone agrees the voter's intent is clear?

A: Nope.

Q: Why not?

A: No time.

Q: No time to count legal votes where everyone, even Republicans, agree the intent is clear? Why not?

A: Because December 12 was yesterday.

Q: Is December 12 a deadline for counting votes?

A: No. January 6 is the deadline. In 1960, Hawaii's votes weren't counted until January 4.

Q: So why is December 12 important?

A: December 12 is a deadline by which Congress can't challenge the results.

Q: What does the Congressional role have to do with the Supreme Court?

A: Nothing.

Q: But I thought ---

A: The Florida Supreme Court had earlier held it would like to complete its work by December 12 to make things easier for Congress. The United States Supreme Court is trying to help the Florida Supreme Court out by forcing the Florida court to abide by a deadline that everyone agrees is not binding.

Q: But I thought the Florida Court was going to just barely have the votes counted by December 12.

A: They would have made it, but the five conservative justices stopped the recount last Saturday.

Q: Why?

A: Justice Scalia said some of the counts may not be legal.

Q: So why not separate the votes into piles, indentations for Gore, hanging chads for Bush, votes that everyone agrees went to one candidate or the other so that we know exactly how Florida voted before determining who won? Then, if some ballots (say, indentations) have to be thrown out, the American people will know right away who won Florida.

A. Great idea! The US Supreme Court rejected it. They held that such counts would likely to produce election results showing Gore won and Gore's winning would cause "public acceptance" and that would "cast a cloud" over Bush's "legitimacy" that would harm "democratic stability."

Q: In other words, if America knows the truth that Gore won, they won't accept the US Supreme Court overturning Gore's victory?

A: Yes.

Q: Is that a legal reason to stop recounts? Or a political one?

A: Let's just say in all of American history and all of American law, this reason has no basis in law. But that doesn't stop the five conservatives from creating new law out of thin air.

Q: Aren't these conservative justices againstjudicial activism?

A: Yes, when liberal judges are perceived to have done it.

Q: Well, if the December 12 deadline is not binding, why not count the votes?

A: The US Supreme Court, after admitting the December 12 deadline is not binding, set December 12 as a binding deadline at 10 p.m. on December 12.

12/15/00
5:24:16 PM

Q: Didn't the US Supreme Court condemn the Florida Supreme Court for arbitrarily setting a deadline?

A: Yes.

Q: But, but --

A: Not to worry. The US Supreme Court does not have to follow laws it sets for other courts.

Q: So who caused Florida to miss the December 12 deadline?

A: The Bush lawyers who first went to court to stop the recount, the rent-a-mob in Miami that got paid Florida vacations for intimidating officials, and the US Supreme Court for stopping the recount

Q: So who is punished for this behavior?

A: Gore, of course.

Q: Tell me this Florida's laws are unconstitutional?

A: Yes

Q: And the laws of 50 states that allow votes to be cast or counted differently are unconstitutional?

A: Yes. And 33 states have the "clear intent of the voter" standard that the US Supreme Court found was illegal in Florida.

Q: Then why aren't the results of 33 states thrown out?

A: Um. Because um ...the Supreme Court doesn't say.

Q: But if Florida's certification includes counts expressly declared by the US Supreme Court to be unconstitutional, we don't know who really won the election there, right?

A: Right. Though a careful analysis by the Miami Herald shows Gore won Florida by about 20,000 votes (excluding the butterfly ballot errors)

Q: So, what do we do, have a re-vote? throw out the entire state? count under a single uniform standard?

A: No. We just don't count the votes that favor Gore.

Q: That's completely bizarre! That sounds like rank political favoritism! Did the justices have any financial interest in the case?

A: Scalia's two sons are both lawyers working for Bush. Thomas's wife is collecting applications for people who want to work in the Bush administration.

Q: Why didn't they recuse themselves?

A: If either had recused himself, the vote would be 4-4, and the Florida Supreme Court decision allowing recounts would have been affirmed.

Q: I can't believe the justices acted in such a blatantly political way.

A: Read the opinions for yourself:

http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/supremecourt/00-949_dec12.fdf (December 9 stay stopping the recount)

http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/00pdf/00-949.pdf (December 12 opinion)

Q: So what are the consequences of this?

A: The guy who got the most votes in the US and in Florida and under our Constitution (Al Gore) will lose to America's second choice who won the all-important 5-4 Supreme Court vote.

Q: I thought in a democracy, the guy with the most votes wins.

A: True, in a democracy. But America is not a democracy. In America in 2000, the guy with the most US Supreme Court votes wins.

Q: So what will happen to the Supreme Court when Bush becomes President.

A: He will appoint more justices in the mode of Thomas and Scalia to ensure that the will of the people is less and less respected. Soon lawless ustices may constitute 6-3 or even 7-2 on the court.

Q: Is there any way to stop this?

A: YES. No federal judge can be confirmed without a vote in the Senate. It takes 60 votes to break a filibuster. If only 41 of the 50 Democratic Senators stand up to Bush and his Supremes and say that they will not approve a single judge appointed by him until a President can be democratically elected in 2004, the judicial reign of terror can end and one day we can hope to return to the rule of law.

Q: What do I do now?

A: Email this to everyone you know, and write or call your senator, reminding him that Gore beat Bush by several hundred thousand votes (three times Kennedy's margin over Nixon) and that you believe that VOTERS rather than JUDGES should determine who wins an election by counting every vote. And to protect our judiciary from overturning the will of the people, you want them to confirm NO NEW JUDGES until 2004 when a president is finally chosen by most of the American people.

Mark H. Levine Attorney at Law MarkLevineEsq@aol.com

MainPage http://www.rense.com

12/15/00
5:08:46 PM

OWNING THE WEATHER

Title: [2025] Weather as a Force Multiplier: Owning the Weather in 2025

Subject: Military applications of weather modification in 2025.

Author(s): Ronald J. Celentano; Tamzy J. House (Faculty Advisor); David Mark Husband; Ann E. Mercer; James B. Near (Faculty Advisor); James E. Pugh; William B. Shields

DTIC Keywords: ANTIFOGGING AGENTS, ANTIFOGGING DEVICES, ATMOSPHERES, CLEAR WEATHER, CLOUDS, CONTROLLED ATMOSPHERES, CROSSWINDS, FOG, FOG DISPERSAL, HAIL, IONOSPHERE, LIGHTNING, RAIN, RAINFALL INTENSITY, STORMS, THUNDERSTORMS, UPPER ATMOSPHERE, WEATHER, WEATHER COMMUNICATIONS, WEATHER FORECASTING, WEATHER MODIFICATION, WIND, WIND SHEAR

Abstract: In 2025 US aerospace forces can "own the weather" by capitalizing on emerging technologies and focusing development of those technologies to warfighting applications. Such a capability offers the warfighter tools to shape the battlespace in ways never before possible. It provides opportunities to impact operations across the full spectrum of conflict and is pertinent to all possible futures. The purpose of this paper is to outline a strategy for the use of a future weather modification system to achieve military objectives rather than to provide a detailed technical road map.

A high risk/high reward endeavor, weather modification offers a dilemma not unlike the splitting of the atom. While some segments of society will always be reluctant to examine controversial issues such as weather modification, the tremendous military capabilities that could result from this field are ignored at our own peril. From enhancing friendly operations or disrupting those of the enemy via small-scale tailoring of natural weather patterns, to complete dominance of global communications and counter-space control, weather modification offers the warfighter a wide range of possible options to defeat or coerce an adversary.

Technology advancements in five major areas are necessary for an integrated weather modification capability: (1) advanced nonlinear modeling techniques, (2) computational capability, (3) information gathering and transmission, (4) a global sensor array, and (5) weather intervention techniques. Some intervention tools exist today and others may be developed and refined in the future.

Current technologies which will mature over the next thirty years will offer anyone who has the necessary resources the ability to modify weather patterns and their corresponding effects, at least on the local scale. Current demographic, economic, and environmental trends will create global stresses that provide the impetus necessary for many countries or groups to turn this weather modification ability into a capability. In the US, weather modification will likely become a part of national security policy with both domestic and international applications. Our government will pursue such a policy, depending on its interests, at various levels. These levels could include: unilateral actions, participation in a security framework such as NATO, membership in an international organization such as the UN, or participation in a coalition. Assuming that in 2025 our national security strategy includes weather modification, its use in our national military strategy will naturally follow. Besides the significant benefits an operational capability would provide, another motivation to pursue weather modification is to deter and counter potential adversaries.

In this paper we show that appropriate application of weather modification can provide battlespace dominance to a degree never before imagined. In the future, such operations will enhance air and space superiority and provide new options for battlespace shaping and battlespace awareness. "The technology is there, waiting for us to pull it all together;" in 2025 we can "Own the Weather."

For a civilian viewpoint, go to http://www.islandnet.com/~wilco/investsky.htm

Bill Smirnow

smirnowb@ix.netcom.com

12/15/00
5:04:58 PM

ELECTION BUMPER STICKERS:

"Those who cast the votes decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything." -Joseph Stalin

Don't Blame Me - I voted for Gore... I Think

UNPRESIDENTED!

If God Meant Us to Vote, He Would Have Given Us Candidates

What popular vote? I voted - Didn't matter

My parents retired to Florida and all I got was this lousy President!

Disney gave us Mickey, Florida gave us Dumbo

DON'T THROW AWAY YOUR VOTE........ LET KATHERINE HARRIS DO IT FOR YOU

Bush trusts the people, but not if it involves counting.

Now do you understand the importance of user-testing?

To you I'm a drunk driver; to my friends, I'm presidential material!

One person, one vote (may not apply in certain states)

I DIDN'T VOTE FOR HIS DADDY EITHER

IT AIN'T OVER 'TIL YOUR BROTHER COUNTS THE VOTES

The election can't be broken. We just fixed it.

The skies (wheeze) of Texas (cough) are upon you! (choke)

Banana Republicans

George W. Bush: The President Quayle We Never Had

The last time somebody listened to a Bush, folks wandered in the desert for 40 years

Campaign spending: $184,000,000. Having your little brother rig the election for you: Priceless.

12/15/00
5:01:36 PM

Real American law is on VOTER'S Side

From: hb@harelbarzilai.org

+ "it is a general rule, EVEN UNDER MANDATORY PROVISIONS, THAT AN + IMPERFECT MARK MADE IN A GOOD FAITH ATTEMPT to follow the statute + will not prevent the ballot from being counted."

"Ballots will not be treated as void merely because of technical or minor errors [..or..] accident, awkwardness, nervousness, inattention, mistake, ignorance, or physical infirmity, IF THE LAWFUL INTENT OF THE VOTER can be ascertained . . ." (p 494)

* ".. the numerous pages of Vol 29 of the C.J.S. [The Corpus Juris * Secundum, the fundamental encyclopedia of American law] make this * central principle clear: the law is usually ON THE SIDE OF THE VOTER, * including the voter who makes a mistake. The principle that the * VOTER'S INTENT is paramount, in counting votes, is restated at least * ten times, with scores of legal cases as examples."

REAL AMERICAN LAW IS ON THE VOTER'S SIDE By Margie Burns

Sadly, an unfair tactic of delaying and preventing the hand recount of disputed ballots in Florida seems to have been upheld, or at least not prevented, by the courts. This loss must not obscure the way the public has been bamboozled about American election law, in this whole process, by bogus pseudo-legal arguments relentlessly reprinted in newspapers and aired on television.

The over-all trend of American election law, throughout American history, has been to side with the voter, including the voter who makes a mistake. While this trend in American legal history has been conspicuously absent from commentary by George Will and Charles Krauthammer, and of course by GOP politicians, it is found clearly stated in the Corpus Juris Secundum, the fundamental encyclopedia of American law.

Even to a non-lawyer, the numerous pages of Vol 29 of the C.J.S. make this central principle clear: the law is usually on the side of the voter, including the voter who makes a mistake. The principle that the voter's intent is paramount, in counting votes, is restated at least ten times, with scores of legal cases as examples. The section of the C.J.S. on recounts extends a further twenty pages, with further scores of legal cases. Here follow some examples of the clear restatement of this principle, so obviously more appropriate to the country we know and love than the rigid hysteria insisting on throwing out every vote possible:

"While there must be a compliance with statutory provisions, the voter may not be disfranchised where he made an honest, although partly unsuccessful, effort at compliance, and, in general, HIS INTENT will be given prime consideration." (C.J.S. 29, "Elections," p 492)

" . . . and through all of the cases the general principle of construction is recognized that a voter should not be disfranchised where it is clear, but only in such case, that he has made an honest effort to comply with the statutory requirements, although he may not have been entirely successful." (p 493-94)

"Ballots will not be treated as void merely because of technical or minor errors or because of irregular or unauthorized markings which appear to have been innocently made as the result of accident, awkwardness, nervousness, inattention, mistake, ignorance, or physical infirmity, if the lawful INTENT of the voter can be ascertained . . ." (p 494)

"The basic purpose for scrutinizing a ballot is to determine whether the WILL OR INTENTION OF THE VOTER CAN BE ASCERTAINED therefrom with reasonable certainty, and, generally, whether a ballot should be counted and, if so, for whom it should be counted . . . are questions the determination of which depends on the VOTER'S INTENTION as gleaned from the ballot itself, or from the ballot as viewed in the light of the facts and circumstances surrounding the election. If the VOTER'S INTENTION CAN BE ASCERTAINED WITH REASONABLE certainty, ordinarily the ballot should be given effect and COUNTED in accordance with that INTENTION, provided the voter has substantially complied with statutory requirements and no essential mandate of the law is thereby violated." (p 496)

"THE VOTER'S WILL OR INTENTION is to be found from the evidence of what he did, and must be determined by an inspection of the ballot itself, read in the light of surrounding circumstances." (p 497)

"While some statutory provisions specifying the nature of the mark to be used by the voter in indicating his choice on the ballot are considered mandatory, it is a general rule, EVEN UNDER MANDATORY PROVISIONS, THAT AN IMPERFECT MARK MADE IN A GOOD FAITH ATTEMPT to follow the statute will not prevent the ballot from being counted." (p 498)

" . . . such statutes are not construed with literal narrowness, and the interpretations of the courts as to what constitutes compliance with the statutes are so diverse that the rule may be stated broadly to be that, WHERE THERE HAS BEEN AN ATTEMPT IN GOOD FAITH to follow the law in making the cross or other mark specified by the statute, the fact that the cross or other mark is imperfect will not prevent the ballot from being counted . . ." (p 499)

"Recount statutes should be liberally construed, to accomplish their purpose OF DETERMINING THE RESULT of an election as evidenced by legal votes." (p 762)

RECLAIM THE MEDIA: http://EconomicDemocracy.org/reclaim.html

12/15/00
4:59:42 PM

Ruth Bader Ginsburg quote

"The Court's conclusion that a constitutionally adequate recount is impractical is a prophecy the Court's own judgment will not allow to be tested," she said. "Such an untested prophecy should not decide the Presidency of the United States."

http://news2.thls.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/americas/newsid_1037000/1037451.stm

12/15/00
4:58:41 PM

Date: Thu, 14 Dec 2000 From: Mark Graffis <ab758@virgin.vip.vi> Subject: Supreme Court vs. Democracy?

Date: Wed, 13 Dec 2000 From: Institute for Public Accuracy <instpa@pacbell.net>

Institute for Public Accuracy 915 National Press Building, Washington, D.C. 20045 (202) 347-0020 * http://www.accuracy.org * ipa@accuracy.org

Wednesday, December 13, 2000

Supreme Court vs. Democracy?

DAVID COLE, cole@law.georgetown.edu Professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center, Cole said today: "The U.S. Supreme Court has done what we all feared -- it has decided the election itself, and has done so by a single vote. While the per curiam attempts to mask this fact, only five Justices -- the five who likely voted for George W. Bush on November 7 -- voted to bar any further recounts. That they did so on grounds that there was insufficient time -- after their own intervention had delayed matters -- raises serious questions about the Court's legitimacy. In addition, it is ironic that the five conservative Justices, who typically take the most restrictive view toward individual rights, stopped the vote in the name of the equal protection clause."

RON DANIELS, rdaniel@ccr-ny.org, http://www.tbwt.com Executive director of the Center for Constitutional Rights and co-chair of the National Malcolm X Commemoration Commission, Daniels wrote: "Though election irregularities in Florida and across the nation were widespread, the most egregious violation was the thousands of Blacks who did manage to cast ballots only to have them thrown out by voting machines. This problem was aggravated by the disproportionate locating of antiquated voting machines in predominantly Black precincts in Florida. These are the ballots that constitute the 'undercount' which would have been rectified by the manual recount halted by the U.S. Supreme Court."

GWENDOLYN MINK, GMink1@aol.com Professor of politics at the University of California at Santa Cruz, Mink said today: "The Supreme Court not only stole the 2000 election from the people, it deranged our constitutional order. Yesterday's decision was not just about who will be our president; it also was about the relationship of the Court to democracy. In one fell swoop, the majority jettisoned 40 years of jurisprudence promoting electoral equality. It set time limits on democracy, and then let the clock run out. It cried 'equal protection,' and then discarded votes that endanger its desired electoral outcome. It pleaded 'state's rights,' and then knee-capped the Florida State Supreme Court in interpreting state law. It claimed 'due process,' and then gave the Florida legislature carte blanche to trample the people's rights in elections. This is a throwback to the Lochner Era, when the Court contorted the Constitution to suit its economic and political sympathies."

GREGORY PALAST, gregory.palast@observer.co.uk, www.salon.com/politics/feature/2000/12/04/voter_file/index.html Palast writes the column "Inside Corporate America" for the Observer of London and is the author of a forthcoming book, "Democratic Regulation." He said today: "A close examination suggests thousands of voters in Florida may have lost their right to vote based on a flaw-ridden list of purported 'felons' provided by a private firm, ChoicePoint, with tight Republican ties."

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy: Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; David Zupan, (541) 484-9167

12/15/00
4:57:12 PM

73 Red Flags – Proof Bush Did Not Win the Popular Vote in Florida

http://www.angelfire.com/fl4/redflagsinflorida/

12/15/00
4:54:01 PM

Change Of Values

I alert you to the situation of election fraud which we are witnessing now in the United States. The following excerpt is from a site recommended recently by one of the members of this forum. I went to that site, and was inspired to convey this charming bit of infromation to you. Why did I do this? What does this have to do with spiritual practice? Well, I'll tell you...I'm posting this item generally to further prove a point. That point is that the system and government under which we live is corrupt through and through, and so is the entire American ideal of "success". Materialism and the greed which is its counterpart is the very essence and foundation of world destruction. We are in the midst of that destruction, where the only thing generally valued is who can out-cheat and out-compete who, and by any fraudulent means necessary. This is the overall tone of the culture in which we live. This is what our children are taught to do in the schools...and these are the values they are taught to follow and then teach their children. Success is not defined by the number of dollars earned per year, nor by social caste. True success is the embodiment of wisdom, the recognition of truth, the expansion of consciousness, and a valuing of nature.

What does the following article have to do with spiritual practice? Lets put it this way...lifestyle has everything to do with spiritual practice. So long as we believe in and cater to this corrupt status- quo, it will eat us and the planet upon which we live, alive. Spiritual practice has as much to do with the wisdom of knowing what NOT to do, and what NOT to participate in, as it does basic precepts. Clearly, wisdom shows us that to exercise our spiritual responsibility, we must not follow the ways of destruction and corruption which are rampant in modern politics. This means that it is necessary to reject modern society and leave it utterly. Get out of debt! Dont buy all that nonsense that living is about being a "consumer" and a worker ant! Get out now while you still can! Only from a position of detachment can we offer real aid to the mass insanity of consumerism.

Why focus on these things you ask? Because this is the practical necessity. To know about something or to focus upon it, does not imply giving that thing "more energy". On the contrary, our clear perception of the global situation and the reasons for its demise, (ie materialistic values) are a large part of what directly dismantles the modern illusions of government and the marketplace. In this way, we are also personally freed of the ideological chains of so called "success" as defined by the modern world. It's all just nonsense, so don't participate! By understanding that lifestyles and values are what promote society, then we understand what mistakes should be avoided in the future. This in fact is the whole value of a study of history as well... we learn from our collective mistakes, just as we can learn from personal ones.

To avoid these social problems by pretending they dont exist or are irrelevant is like getting a thorn in your foot and just ignoring its presence. Perhaps some on UCS would like to say...well, "we'll just leave that thorn in our foot and ignore it, because to admit that it's there would be "negative". "Then we'll just send it "love and light" and that will solve the problem". (Never mind that it is painful and bleeding, like the world situation today) Sorry, but that is not a solution. The practical thing to do is to pull the thorn out, clean and bandage the wound, WHILE you send it as much love and light as you can. Can you easily understand this metaphor, or does it have to be explained to you even more clearly?

This we must also do with a change of values and lifestyle in general.

Matthew Webb

visionquest@eoni.com

12/15/00
4:38:13 PM

ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE (ENS) http://ens-news.com

"We Cover the Earth For You"

EPA TO CUT MERCURY EMISSIONS FROM POWER PLANTS

WASHINGTON, DC, December 14, 2000 (ENS) - For the first time in the United States, coal fired power plants may have to reduce their emissions of mercury. Environmental Protection Agency administrator Carol Browner today announced that the Clinton administration will require the reductions to protect public health and the environment.

For full text and graphics visit: http://ens-news.com/ens/dec2000/2000L-12-14-02.html

NEW GUIDELINES INTEGRATE ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENTS INTO U.S. TRADE POLICY

By Brian Hansen

WASHINGTON, DC, December 14, 2000 (ENS) - The Clinton administration this week unveiled a set of guidelines designed to ensure that all "reasonably foreseeable environmental impacts" are assessed when drafting future trade agreements.

For full text and graphics visit: http://ens-news.com/ens/dec2000/2000L-12-14-15.html

AUSTRIANS, CZECHS RESOLVE NUCLEAR PLANT DISPUTE

PRAGUE, Czech Republic, December 14, 2000 (ENS) - A Czech nuclear reactor will undergo a full environmental impact assessment as part of an agreement to diffuse a longstanding dispute between the Czech Republic and its neighbor Austria.

For full text and graphics visit: http://ens.lycos.com/ens/dec2000/2000L-12-14-10.html

UNIQUE PARK IN THE CONGO NOW FOUR TIMES LARGER

WASHINGTON, DC, December 14, 2000 - Odzala National Park, a unique refuge for the world's largest concentration of lowland gorillas in the Republic of Congo, has been quadrupled in size. The expansion, announced today, secures habitat for the gorillas and a host of other rare and threatened species.

For full text and graphics visit: http://ens-news.com/ens/dec2000/2000L-12-14-06.html

COURT ORDERS CLOSURE OF DELHI'S POLLUTING INDUSTRIES

By Devinder Sharma

NEW DELHI, India, December 14, 2000 (ENS) - The Supreme Court of India has issued a directive for closure of all polluting industries in New Delhi's residential and non-conforming areas within four weeks. Frantic government efforts are underway to implement the court's decision in an orderly manner.

For full text and graphics visit: http://ens-news.com/ens/dec2000/2000L-12-14-01.html

FUEL ADDITIVE LITTLE THREAT TO UK GROUNDWATER

LONDON, United Kingdom, December 14, 2000 (ENS) - The UK Environment Agency has published a report on the extent of groundwater contamination by the petrol component methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE).

For full text and graphics visit: http://ens.lycos.com/ens/dec2000/2000L-12-14-11.html

ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE AMERISCAN: DECEMBER 14, 2000

Current Levels of Particulate Pollution Can Kill

Excess Manganese Could Make Parkinson's Worse

Reptile Smuggler Pleads Guilty to Multiple Felony Charges

Babbitt Visits Arizona to Contemplate Sonoran National Monument

Second Nuclear Reactor to Restart at DC Cook

Idaho Takes Legal Action Against Grizzly Reintroduction

Big Islands Get More Lizard Species

225 Companies Excel in Environmental Protection

Federal Agencies Team Up to Fight Natural Disasters

National Atlas Receives Vice President's Hammer Award

For full text and graphics visit: http://ens-news.com/ens/dec2000/2000L-12-14-09.html

12/15/00
4:32:18 PM

Subcritical Nuclear Weapon Detonation Today, Underground Nuclear Testing Resumption Possible

The U.S. Department of Energy conducted the subcritical nuclear weapons test at 3:30 p.m. PST at the LYNER facility in Area 1 of the Nevada Test Site. This is the twelfth subcritical nuclear weapons test since the U.S. suspended underground testing in 1992.

FYI Icecap -- Icecap was to be the next nuclear test in 1992 when the U.S. testing program was terminated. It has been held in a state of low readiness ever since. Over the past two weeks significant activities have restarted at the Icecap site and substantial numbers of new workers have been added at LYNER (Low Yield Nuclear Experiment Research) underground facility. Given the trial balloons about mini-nukes and problems with stockpile stewardship published recently, I take this activity seriously.

Charlie Hilfenhaus

Alliance of Atomic Veterans

Director, Atomic Workers Division

chilfenhaus@juno.com

12/15/00
11:56:21 AM

Allow the spirit within to guide you always. For omniscient power is lying burried deep within our souls, holding God given insights and talents. Your wisdom is needed now, so please share your truths and make it manifest in this world now for the healing of our individual lives and hence the healing of human kind. In doing so we simultaneously facilitate the healing of Mother Earth and hence restore the peace that was meant to be. May we permenantly transform the vibrations of fear and all its current manifestations by consciously choosing LOVE in our beliefs, thoughts, words and actions. Decisions Do Determine our Destiny: therefore may all your decisions be in line with the universal laws and make sure all win and benefit form every choice you are making at every moment in time. With lots of Love & Light to all Lifecoach@phc.igs.net

12/14/00
5:40:02 PM

Dec. 14, 2000

Yucca Mountain Site Characterization Process Lacks Integrity

Statement of Lisa Gue, Policy Analyst, Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program, to the National Academy of Sciences Board on Radioactive Waste Management

We are greatly disturbed by the manner in which the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is assessing the suitability of Yucca Mountain, in Nevada, for a high-level nuclear waste repository. A memo has come to light showing that the agency -- which is responsible for making and executing energy policies that are in the public interest -- is in fact going out of its way to help the nuclear industry dump its waste at the site of its choosing. This lack of impartiality by a government agency is highly improper, and we urge the board to exert as much pressure as it can to stop it.

The DOE is preparing to recommend Yucca Mountain, located 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, Nev., as a permanent disposal site for radioactive waste generated by atomic weapons facilities and commercial nuclear reactors across the country. If the proposal is approved, 70,000 metric tons of high-level nuclear waste will be transported through 43 states for burial in Nevada.

Currently, the agency is assessing the suitability of Yucca Mountain for the repository. The agency is required to maintain impartiality during this process and withstand pressure from the nuclear industry, which sees the repository as a convenient way to get rid of its waste and transfer liability for it to the government.

A document recently discussed in a Las Vegas Sun article clearly points to DOE bias in favor of the industry. The document -- a memo attached to an overview of a DOE report -- indicates that the overview is designed to help industry lobbyists win support for the Yucca Mountain proposal in Congress.

This "smoking gun" evidence of industry bias within the DOE is extremely discouraging to members of the public who have participated in good faith in the various hearings and comment periods required by the Nuclear Waste Policy Act. It now appears that public participation has been solicited merely to lend legitimacy to a process in which the selection of Yucca Mountain is a foregone conclusion.

The memo isn't the only thing indicating that the selection of Yucca Mountain is fast becoming a done deal. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and DOE have been trying to resolve so-called "key technical issues" to obtain a license for a Yucca Mountain repository, even though the DOE has not received the necessary congressional approval to apply for a license.

In a similarly inappropriate display of premature confidence, the overview report written about by the Sun outlines the basis for a DOE recommendation of the Yucca Mountain repository. Yet many steps are to be taken before the DOE embarks on this phase of the selection process. For instance, DOE's recommendation is supposed to be contingent on regulations that have not been finalized -- most notably proposed changes to DOE site suitability guidelines and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's radiation protection standards. Likewise, environmental impact statement for Yucca Mountain is not scheduled to be issued until late next spring.

Further proof that the government intends to approve the Yucca Mountain site lies in a proposal by a private consortium called Private Fuel Storage to open an interim waste storage facility in Utah. In the consortium's draft environmental impact statement, the NRC explicitly assumes that waste will eventually be transferred to Yucca Mountain. In protest, Public Citizen has joined environmental and public interest groups across the country in calling for President Clinton to issue an executive order preventing the licensing of a private fuel storage facility.

We urge this board to recognize these clear signs of pro-industry bias within the DOE, because they seriously undermine the integrity of the Yucca Mountain site characterization process. In light of this board's advisory role to Congress, we urge board members to press for closer oversight of DOE. The public cannot be expected to have confidence in a process conducted by an agency that so obviously fails to maintain impartiality.

12/14/00
5:38:53 PM

Real democracy comes from waking up By Howard Zinn and Gary Krane

The political culture of the United States is obsessed with and dominated by voting. Every election year is accompanied by the media's and the politicians' obsession with persuading Americans that voting for one candidate or another (and only if they are Democrat or Republican, of course) is the most important act of citizenship.

We get high on voting and forget that whether presidents have been Republican or Democrat, impotent or oversexed, they have followed the same basic policies. Whether crooks or Boy Scouts, handsome or homely, agile or clumsy, they have taxed the poor; subsidized the rich; squandered the nation's commonwealth (our minerals, airwaves, water and forests); wasted our taxes on bombers, missiles, ships and other corporate welfare; ignored the decay of the cities; and done so little for poor minority kids that for every Afro-American in college, five are now in prison, and for every Latino in college, three are in prison.

Harry Truman was blunt, and Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon were wily. And Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton were charming. But the first three spent billions and sent armies to Asia to defend dictators and massacre more than 2 million of the people we claimed to be helping, and the latter three again spent billions of our taxes to also arm and prop up dictators and oligarchies, and to subvert democratic movements against those governments in places like Indonesia, El Salvador and Guatemala, ending in murder of hundreds of thousands of innocent people.

John F. Kennedy was witty; Carter was "caring"; George Bush, the elder, was firm; and Reagan said he was against big government. But all expanded our federal budgets enormously by spending hundreds of billions building up grotesquely huge nuclear weapons systems (we continue building B-2 bombers at $2 billion apiece) at the expense of providing a great public education system, health care for all Americans regardless of income, jobs that pay a living wage and mass transit for all of our cities.

Despite the decimation of the former Soviet Union, Al Gore and George W. Bush both want to continue this military spending madness, which year after year consumes more than 50 percent of our discretionary federal budget (the budget that the president and Congress determine). And Bush has the gall to claim he is against big government.

Nixon was corrupt and Gerald Ford straightforward, Reagan endearing and Clinton someone who claimed to feel the pain of the poor. But all coldly cut essential benefits for the poor and gave hundreds of billions of dollars of favors instead to rich corporations and billionaires. This obsession with voting is made all the worse by corporate media's obsession with "fine distinctions." The more the media can keep us distracted by this tweedledum-tweedledee horse race, the more they (and therefore the major candidates themselves) can avoid dealing with the huge issues and solutions being purposely ignored by both major party candidates: Issues like who in fact owns and controls both houses, universal health care, full public funding of elections, seriously cutting the defense budget, decriminalizing drugs, returning to labor their rights to organize, and the frightening concentration of media ownership itself. Why else did they both make sure Ralph Nader was kept out of the debates? The tragedy of all this is that this cult of voting and fine distinctions (and often "personality" as well) takes the energy of ordinary citizens, which, combined, can be a powerful force, and depletes it in the spectator sport of voting.

Today, sadly, our most cherished moment of democratic citizenship comes when we leave the house once in four years to choose between two mediocre Anglo-Saxon males who have been trundled out by big corporate and billionaire-run political caucuses, million-dollar primaries and managed conventions for the rigged presidential debate and multiple choice test we call a "democratic" election. Presidents come and go, but the 200 top corporations keep increasing their almost complete control over our elections and the two major parties' candidates (with big corporations and billionaires funding 90 percent to 98 percent of both parties' budgets), over our work lives by weakening labor's rights, over our health care rights (43 million uninsured now compared to 32 million when Clinton took office), over our airwaves, and over our legal and court system, even determining how easily any of us can be sent to prison for victimless "crimes."

To further prove greed knows no boundaries, they now want to take over public education and social security. No president in this century has stopped the trend. Not even Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Only when mass movements have galvanized the country have presidents made important reforms, as when strikes and turmoil throughout the nation in the 1930s pushed FDR into his New Deal measures. Sure, Roosevelt was a sensitive man. But it took mass protests to sharpen that sensitivity and make it take action. Then and only then did he take huge steps to help the poor, establish the minimum wage and create Social Security (which had been the Socialist Party's most popular demand).

But that didn't change the basic nature of an unfettered capitalist system, whose highest priority has always been profits and power and to hell with the rest.

Voting Day 2000 has again come and gone. Sure, one of the presidential candidates is better than the other. But we will go a long way from spectator democracy to real democracy when we understand that the future of this country doesn't depend, mainly, on who is our next president. It depends on whether the American citizen, fed up with the buying off of our Congress and president by the billionaires; fed up with the murderous greed of our health care system and the pharmaceutical companies; fed up with the planetary self-destructive path of our energy, auto, lumber, agribusiness and chemical companies; will organize all over the country a clamor for change even greater than the labor uprisings of the '30s or the black rebellion of the '60s and shake this country out of old paths and falsehood into new paths and the truth.

Howard Zinn, emeritus professor of history at Boston University, is the author of "People's History of the United States" and "The Twentieth Century."

12/14/00
1:20:11 PM

Here are today's Reuters 'World Environment News' headlines, proudly brought to you by Planet Ark.

Doing environmental research? Search our news archives at: http://www.planetark.org/searchhome.cfm

UPDATE - Final days of stop-start at Chernobyl power station - UKRAINE http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9319

Investors warm to climate change theme - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9315

Europe green energy certificates start test trading - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9318

Solar power seeks a place in the sun - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9320

UPDATE - Flooding returns after gales and rain lash Britain - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9322

Spanish hoteliers oppose "eco" tax on tourists - SPAIN http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9321

Norway could host climate talks before Christmas - NORWAY http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9314

Iran court fines owner of sunken Russian vessel - IRAN http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9316

China to spend $24 bln on environment over 5 yrs - CHINA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9317

12/14/00
1:18:52 PM

CANNABIS 'MAKES DRIVERS MORE CAREFUL'

9:23 Thursday 14 December 2000

Scientists have found motorists who drive after smoking cannabis slow down and have the same reaction times to hazards as those who are free from the effects of the drug.

But researchers at the Transport Research Laboratory in Crowthorne, Berkshire, have concluded that high doses of cannabis have a bad effect on driving - but not as bad as alcohol or tiredness.

The researchers found that volunteers drove more slowly and cautiously to compensate for their intoxication after taking cannabis .

The team recruited 15 volunteers to undergo driving tests while under the influence of high or low doses of cannabis, or having not taken the drug at all. The participants either smoked ready-rolled "spliffs" or rolled their own with resin supplied under a Government licence, New Scientist magazine reported.

They were then put through their paces on a hi-tech driving simulator.

But they found it very difficult to follow a figure-of-eight loop of road when given a high dose.

Steering ability was the only skill adversely affected.

Reaction times to motorway hazards and performance on cognitive tests remained unchanged.

Previous trials at the laboratory have shown that alcohol and tiredness have a worse effect on driving, affecting higher thinking processes.

Pete Henshall, of the Legalise Cannabis Alliance, said: "Any person who is not in full control of their body should not drive, be it through tiredness, alcohol, cannabis or drugs... but everything must be seen in proportion. We need to legalise and regulate cannabis in a similar way to alcohol to be able to see the size of the problem."

12/14/00
1:16:08 PM

A Ruling That Will Live In Infamy By The Editorial Board http://www.wsws.org/articles/2000/dec2000/elec-d14.shtml 12-14-00

The ruling issued Tuesday by the US Supreme Court marks a turning point in US history. It constitutes a fundamental and irrevocable break with democracy and the traditional forms of bourgeois legality.

There is no precedent for the action taken by the Court. After an election in which 100 million people voted, the result has been determined by five unelected judges in a five-to-four split decision. The majority on the Court halted the counting of votes in Florida for the transparent purpose of preventing Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore, who won the popular vote nationally, from getting credit for ballots cast in his favor and thereby winning the state's pivotal electoral votes. The judges stole the election and threw it to their Republican ally George W. Bush.

They did so in broad view of the American people, overturning a decision of the Florida Supreme Court and dismissing the warnings of their fellow justices, who protested in vain that the ruling would undermine the legitimacy of the judiciary and discredit the United States' claims to represent democratic principles.

One section of the decision handed down by Chief Justice William Rehnquist and associate justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, Sandra Day O'Connor and Anthony Kennedy bears quoting. In its bald denial of the right of suffrage, it reveals the essence of their action:

"The individual citizen has no federal constitutional right to vote for electors for the President of the United States unless and until the state legislature chooses a statewide election as the means to implement its power to appoint members of the Electoral College.

The majority decision goes on to say that any state legislature can, at any time, revoke the popular vote for president and "if it so chooses, select the electors itself.

The very methods employed by the Bush campaign and its allies on the Supreme Court, and the overtly anti-democratic basis of their actions, reveal the nature of the policies the new administration intends to carry out. Bush speaks for the most ruthless and avaricious sections of the ruling class"those who demand the removal of all legal, political and moral limitations on the exploitation of the working class, the realization of profit and the accumulation of personal wealth.

The 2000 election brought to a head a bitter conflict over policy and strategy that has been raging within the US ruling elite for the past decade. A substantial section within the corporate and political establishment never accepted the legitimacy of the Democratic Clinton-Gore administration. Despite Clinton's efforts to conciliate the Republican right and adapt to its social agenda, powerful forces within financial and corporate circles saw his administration as a retreat from the aggressive anti-labor and pro-business policies of Reagan and the elder George Bush. They bitterly resented Clinton's token gestures toward social reform.

These forces sought to remove Clinton from office, backing the series of scandals and provocations that culminated in the impeachment and Senate trial of the Democratic president. The Supreme Court figured prominently in that attempted coup, beginning with its unanimous ruling in May of 1997 denying Clinton's request for a postponement of the Paula Jones sexual harassment suit until after his term of office. Chief Justice Rehnquist played a key role in the conspiracy, appointing the ultra-right judge who fired the first Whitewater independent counsel and replaced him with Kenneth Starr.

Having failed to bring down Clinton, these same forces have acted to hijack the 2000 election and return a Republican administration that will pursue a course of class confrontation and employ authoritarian methods.

No premise of Marxism is more hotly denounced by defenders of the capitalist system, liberal and conservative alike, than the theoretical conception that the state is an instrument of class rule, and that bourgeois democracy is, in the final analysis, a form of the dictatorship of capital. Yet the working out of the electoral crisis has provided a powerful confirmation of this basic Marxist precept. Five high court judges, the most elite representatives of the American bourgeoisie, have intervened to decide the election and override the votes of 50 million Gore supporters.

That the Court's action is an attack on democratic rights is acknowledged in the dissenting opinion of Associate Justice John Paul Stevens, who writes: "In the interest of finality, however, the majority effectively orders the disenfranchisement of an unknown number of voters whose ballots reveal their intent"and are therefore legal votes under state law"but were for some reason rejected by the ballot-counting machines.

In concluding his bitter dissent, Stevens states: "Although we may never know with complete certainty the identity of the winner of this year's Presidential election, the identity of the loser is perfectly clear. It is the Nation's confidence in the judge as an impartial guardian of the rule of law.

Here Stevens points to a significant aspect of the process that has unfolded over the past five weeks: the recklessness exhibited by the dominant factions within the US ruling elite that back the Republican Party. Their willingness to sacrifice the legitimacy of the Supreme Court in the eyes of broad sections of the public underscores the authoritarian trajectory of their policies. Public confidence in the Court is less critical to those who are breaking with democratic norms and moving in the direction of dictatorial rule.

It is, however, a fact that with the discrediting of the high court, every institution of the bourgeois state has fallen into disrepute. Congress has already been disgraced in the eyes of broad masses for its role in the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal and impeachment conspiracy. The odor of fraud hangs over the presidency even before George W. Bush takes up residency in the White House.

The deep-rooted social polarization within American society has now found a stark expression in the breakdown of traditional bourgeois democratic institutions. The fierce and protracted conflicts within the ruling elite have spilled over to society at large, and the masses can no longer be kept on the sidelines.

The social and political attacks that will be launched by the Bush administration will meet with ever greater resistance from working people and all those prepared to fight for democratic rights and social justice. The flabby opposition of Gore and the Democrats is one thing. The opposition of the working class is something altogether different.

The crisis of the 2000 election marks a new point of departure in American life, and, indeed, in world affairs. Social relations and political conditions will never return to what they were before November 7. The first task of the American working class is to work through this immense political experience, and draw the appropriate political lessons. The Socialist Equality Party and its political organ, the World Socialist Web Site, are prepared to play a leading role in this process of political education and preparation for the great class battles ahead.

Readers: The WSWS invites your comments. Please <mailto:editor@wsws.orgsend e-mail.

Copyright 1998-2000 World Socialist Web Site All rights reserved

12/14/00
1:12:50 PM

REAL POWER

Lightparty@aol.com

REAL POWER

Deborah

In addition, Mr. Bush, you have NO REAL power.Real power comes from a place of honesty and integrity and love. It embraces, it heals, it is not destructive and it is all encompassing. The more this is true, the greater the power. Without REAL power as your foundation, you have only the pseudo power that others, such as the supreme court (5/4), place in you. I, personally, will not allow you to do damage to our Earth, out of, for example, corporate greed; I will not allow you to remove any of the benefits or rights secured by women or those with low income; I will not allow you to force your belief system upon children; I will not allow you to attack or minimize any segment of society, inclusive of homosexuals; I will not allow you to do damage to this country's economic improvements; I will not allow you to destroy relations with other countries or destroy any aspect of our world.

I commit to this out of REAL power.

I not only do not recognize you as "my" president, Mr. Bush, I do not recognize you as having ANY REAL presidential power. The history of this election is just the initial proof.

Deborah ~ Nine

12/14/00
1:10:28 PM

ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE (ENS) http://ens-news.com

"We Cover the Earth For You"

Gore Concedes, Environment a Non-Issue for Bush

By Brian Hansen

WASHINGTON, DC, December 13, 2000 (ENS) - Vice President Al Gore formally conceded the protracted presidential election tonight to Texas Governor George W. Bush, a Republican who many critics fear will promote policies disastrous for the nation's environment.

** SPECIAL ELECTION REPORT **

For full text and graphics visit: http://ens.lycos.com/ens/dec2000/2000L-12-13-16.html

TINY WEED ASSUMES GIANT SCIENTIFIC STATUS

LONDON, United Kingdom, December 13, 2000 (ENS) - It is not much to look at, but Arabidopsis thaliana, a weed otherwise known as thale cress, is about to broaden our understanding of how plants and animals grow, deal with disease and interact with their environment.

For full text and graphics visit: http://ens.lycos.com/ens/dec2000/2000L-12-13-11.html

GLOBAL WARMING COULD THREATEN HUMAN, ECOSYSTEM HEALTH

WASHINGTON, DC, December 13, 2000 (ENS) - The climate changes associated with global warming are likely to be hardest on the elderly, the infirm and the poor, particularly in developing countries, shows a new report by the Pew Center on Global Climate Change. The study finds that the United States may have sufficient resources to prevent the worst possibilities - but warns that poorer countries may not fare as well.

For full text and graphics visit: http://ens-news.com/ens/dec2000/2000L-12-13-07.html

ASIAN ELEPHANT FACING MULTITUDE OF THREATS

GLAND, Switzerland, December 12, 2000 (ENS) - Loved from afar but increasingly persecuted at home, the Asian elephant is being forced to withdraw to a fraction of its former territory, says a report published today.

For full text and graphics visit: http://ens.lycos.com/ens/dec2000/2000L-12-13-10.html

CONTRACTOR ADMITS USING ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS FOR ASBESTOS REMOVAL

WASHINGTON, DC, December 13, 2000 (ENS) - A contract labor firm and several of its key employees have pleaded guilty to hiring unauthorized aliens to remove cancer causing asbestos from buildings and other structures.

For full text and graphics visit: http://ens-news.com/ens/dec2000/2000L-12-13-15.html

CANADA, UNITED STATES CUTTING ACID RAIN POLLUTION

WASHINGTON, DC, December 13, 2000 (ENS) - The United States and Canada have exceeded their own expectations in successfully reducing emissions of the major contributors to acid rain, a new joint study on cross border air pollution indicates. As a result of these emissions cuts, rainfall acidity in the eastern U.S. has been reduced by up to 25 percent compared to the 1980s.

For full text and graphics visit: http://ens-news.com/ens/dec2000/2000L-12-13-06.html

SPANISH RADIOACTIVE LEAK BRINGS ITALIAN LAWSUIT

TURIN, Italy, December 13, 2000 (ENS) - Magistrates in the Italian city of Turin have charged two directors of a Spanish firm with "dangerous disposal of materials," over a 1998 leak of radioactive material from the company's Algeciras smelting plant.

For full text and graphics visit: http://ens-news.com/ens/dec2000/2000L-12-13-01.html

ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE AMERISCAN: DECEMBER 13, 2000

Puerto Rico Water Agency Fined for Violations

Shrimpers Asked to Give Leatherback Turtles a Break

Bowhead Whales Counted with Cameras, Genetics

Cloned Proteins Could Lead to New Pesticides

Second Wolf Shot in Idaho Within a Month

$1 Million in Grants Help Restore Galveston Bay

Chemical Industry Boosts "Green Chemistry"

Phosphorus Gets Closer Look with New Techniques

Florida License Plates Provide Funds for Bears

Make Money: Recycle Your House

For full text and graphics visit: http://ens-news.com/ens/dec2000/2000L-12-13-09.html

Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2000 All Rights Reserved.

SEND NEWS STORY TIPS TO news@ens-news.com

E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE

TO NATIONAL, ENVIRONMENTAL, AND SCIENCE EDITORS:

The Pew Center: Climate Change Could Cause Major Changes in U.S. Ecosystems

WASHINGTON D.C. , Dec. 13 -/E-Wire/-- Global climate change will cause major changes in natural ecosystems -- and the plants and animal communities that make up these ecosystems -- across the United States, according to a report released today by the Pew Center on Global Climate Change.

/CONTACT: Katie Mandes of the Pew Center, 703-516-4146 or mandes@pewclimate.org; or Dale Curtis, 202-777-3530, for the Pew Center/

/Web site: http://www.pewclimate.org/?p/

For Full Text Visit: http://ens.lycos.com/e-wire/Dec00/13Dec0004.html

E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE

TO ENVIRONMENTAL EDITOR:

2001 Environmental & Safety Compliance Calendar on CD-ROM Now Available from Environmental Resource Center

CARY, N.C., Dec. 13 -/E-Wire/-- Environmental Resource Center announced today that their 2001 Environmental & Safety Compliance Calendar is now available, on CD-ROM as well as in print. Included in this calendar are essential compliance dates for each major environmental and safety law, as well as telephone numbers for state and federal regulatory agencies.

/CONTACT: Tammy Silverthorne of Environmental Resource Center, 919-469-1585 ext. 226/

/Web site: http://www.ercweb.com /

For Full Text Visit: http://ens.lycos.com/e-wire/Dec00/13Dec0001.html

E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE

TO STATE AND ENVIRONMENTAL EDITORS:

Sen. Smith Tours Corps of Engineers Sites

CONCORD, Mass., Dec. 13 -/E-Wire/-- Several sites in the Granite State are being toured today by New Hampshire Senator Robert C. Smith and high- ranking U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officials. In addition to Sen. Smith, who serves as the Chairman of the Senate's Environment and Public Works Committee, the group includes Dr. Joseph W. Westphal, Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works, and Colonel Brian E. Osterndorf, regional head of the Army Engineers in New England. A media event, hosted by Senator Smith, will be held at the New Hampshire Port Authority in Portsmouth, N.H., at 2:30 p.m.

/CONTACT: Sue Douglas of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 978-318-8264, susan.i.douglas@usace.army.mil/

For Full Text Visit: http://ens.lycos.com/e-wire/Dec00/13Dec0002.html

E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE E-WIRE PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

LAKEWOOD, COLORADO COMPANY RELEASES COMPLIANCE TRACKING SOFTWARE FOR INDUSTRIAL PRETREATMENT

Linko Data Systems, Incorporated launches sales of LinkoCTS+ version 4.0

Lakewood, CO, Dec.13, -/E-Wire/-- Linko Data Systems, Inc., a Lakewood, Colorado company, has launched sales of LinkoCTS+ version 4.0, the company's latest release in it's line of compliance tracking software for Industrial Pretreatment Programs (IPP).

/CONTACT: David Stadelmann or Michael Connolly (303)275-9968/

For Full Text Visit: http://ens.lycos.com/e-wire/Dec00/13Dec0005.html

SEND YOUR PRESS RELEASE ON E-WIRE -- 1-888-764-NEWS

12/14/00
1:07:35 PM

Please send Sign-Ons to: nirs.se@mindspring.com

The following letter, written in response to the sensational revelations published in the Las Vegas Sun December 1, will be released on December 14. Please sign on by 5 pm Eastern time on THURSDAY December 14. To sign on, simply e-mail us at: nirs.se@mindspring.com with your name, organization, city and state. Organizations only, please. THANKS! Together we will stop Yucca Mountain and Mobile Chernobyl!

Michael Mariotte NIRS

December 14, 2000

The Honorable Bill Richardson Secretary of Energy U.S. Department of Energy 1000 Independence Avenue, SW Washington, D.C. 20585

Dear Secretary Richardson,

The undersigned [insert number here] public interest and environmental organizations, on behalf of our combined memberships, wish to express our deep concerns about the recent revelations involving the Yucca Mountain Project. The Las Vegas Sun newspaper reported on December 1st that Ivan Itkin, the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management's director, acknowledged he is close to recommending Yucca Mountain as a safe site for the permanent national repository for high-level nuclear waste. "We do not see any showstoppers," Itkin is quoted as saying. The article also reported that a draft copy of an overview of the soon to be released Yucca Mountain "Site Recommendation Considerations Report" (SRCR) obtained by the Las Vegas Sun states: "The report concludes that a repository that is likely to meet the safety standards proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency and the licensing requirements of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission can be designed, constructed and operated at the Yucca Mountain site." It is very troubling that Dr. Itkin and the SRCR are making such confident assertions, when EPA standards and NRC requirements have not yet even been finalized. In November 1998, over 200 public interest and environmental organizations petitioned you to disqualify Yucca Mountain from any further consideration as a potential nuclear waste repository. The request was based on the DOE's own Guidelines for Site Suitability. Less than 50 year old rainwater found by DOE scientists at the proposed repository depth within Yucca Mountain provides compelling evidence that "pre-waste-emplacement ground-water travel time from the disturbed zone to the accessible environment is expected to be less than 1,000 years" along a pathway of likely and significant radionuclide travel. Thus, under 10 Code of Federal Regulations Part 960.4-2-1, "Post-Closure Disqualifying Condition for Hydrology," the Yucca Mountain site should be disqualified. The Nuclear Waste Policy Act gives the Secretary of Energy clear authority to terminate site characterization at Yucca Mountain at any time that the site is determined to be unsuitable. Your Department responded to the petition not by challenging the assertion that the Yucca Mountain site should be disqualified, but rather by stating that DOE simply needed more time to study the site. However, just one year later, in November, 1999, DOE proposed to change 10 CFR 960's Guidelines for Site Suitability by simply eliminating individual disqualifying conditions, such as the one for fast flow of water cited in the petition. Rather than answer the charge in the petition, DOE decided to change the rules in the middle of the game. Yet again, well over 150 public interest and environmental organizations protested DOE's actions via the public comment process, and also wrote you to urge that the proposed rule change be withdrawn. There has been no official response, but DOE has moved ahead in its Yucca Mountain Project activities behaving as if the proposed change is already a finalized rule. DOE's ever more apparent disregard for the concerns of the public interest and environmental community came into sharp focus in light of the contents of a two page DOE contractor memo attached to the SRCR draft overview obtained by the Las Vegas Sun. The memo states "The Overview provides information that potential supporters can use in expressing support for a site recommendation. It is not intended to convert those who oppose a Yucca Mountain repository or any solution to the nuclear waste problem." It goes on to state "the technical suitability of the site is less of a concern to Congress than the broader issue of whether the nuclear waste problem can be solved at an affordable price in both financial and political terms." Such statements represent an outrageous betrayal of the public trust. The DOE is supposed to serve the American people, not the nuclear power industry. It is now all too clear that DOE's impending determination that Yucca Mountain is a suitable site for a nuclear waste repository is based not on sound science and public safety, but on politics and money. Many of our organizations have faithfully taken part-every step of the way and over the course of many years--in DOE's official public participation process for the Yucca Mountain Project. We have urged you, Secretary Richardson, to disqualify the site for safety reasons. We have urged you and your Department to enforce DOE's own safety-based siting guidelines, not to do away with them. We have continuously raised questions about the site's safety, or lack thereof. DOE has proven itself disingenuous. It is abundantly clear that the soon to be released DOE Site Recommendation Considerations Report for Yucca Mountain is a document intended not to address issues of public health, safety, and the environment, but rather to help nuclear industry lobbyists "sell" Yucca Mountain on Capitol Hill. Upon release of the SRCR, DOE will yet again ask the public and our organizations to take part in hearings. But DOE seems much more concerned with what's happening in nuclear utility corporate boardrooms and the halls of power than in public hearings. These recent revelations of DOE collusion with the nuclear industry, placing money and politics over public involvement, safety, and sound science, have hammered the final nails in the coffin of the Yucca Mountain Project's credibility. Given the damage, it is hard to say what, if anything, DOE could do to restore faith in its activities at Yucca Mountain. For the reasons cited above, we urge you to exercise your clear authority under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act to disqualify the Yucca Mountain site based on its unsuitability. As a first step toward this end, DOE should withdraw its fatally flawed Draft Environmental Impact Statement. A legitimate Environmental Impact Statement would adequately address groundwater travel time, site specific transportation impacts in the 43 States that would be traversed by tens of thousands of high-level nuclear waste truck and train shipments, and the cataclysmic risks of earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and the upwelling of superheated water that could flood the repository within Yucca Mountain, releasing massive amounts of radiation into the environment. A legitimate Environmental Impact Statement would serve as the basis for the Energy Secretary's decision to disqualify Yucca Mountain. High-level radioactive wastes are among the deadliest poisons on Earth, and remain hazardous for hundreds of thousands of years. Nuclear waste isolation from the living environment is the goal of the nuclear waste repository program. No compromise is acceptable. An unsuitable site should not be used for high-level nuclear waste disposal. If Yucca Mountain cannot meet stringent safety standards, it must be disqualified. We await your action.

Respectfully Submitted,

Michael Mariotte Nuclear Information and Resource Service

cc: Council on Environmental Quality, Linda Lance Environmental Protection Agency, Carol Browner DOE Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, Ivan Itkin Office of Management and Budget United States Senate United States House of Representatives

12/14/00
1:00:36 PM

Bush's 5-4 "Victory"

After last night's Supreme Court decision left him virtually no choice, Al Gore decided today to abandon his fight for the White House and will quit the race in an evening address that will clear the way for George W. Bush's presidency. John Nichols dissects this extraordinary turn of events in the latest installment of the Online Beat, his web-only reporting feature:

"There is every reason to believe that Al Gore defeated George W. Bush for president of the United States on Nov. 7.

There is every reason to doubt, however, that this election result will ever be officially confirmed for the American people.

The U.S. Supreme Court must take the blame for this deeply troubling circumstance, which will so undermine the legitimacy of what is now an all-but-certain Bush presidency. Tragically for Bush, and for America, his "victory" will always be read as a manipulated result that had more to do with Republican connections than democratic intentions."

Read this report in its entirety only at:

http://www.thenation.com/thebeat

12/14/00
12:22:25 PM

Planetary Vision Festival 2001

Dear friends,

I want to let you know about the Planetary Vision Festival 2001, which was initiated by The Club of Budapest in partnership with the Founding Member Alliance. The Planetary Vision Festival 2001 is the first in an annual series of events and programs celebrating our new Planetary Consciousness and its related ethics and actions. The Festival will unite people worldwide in awareness of the great opportunities present at the turn-of-the-millennium to shape a positive future for all and help spur humanity to new actions and new heights.

The Festival is looking for additional Founding Member partners, Local Event Organizers, Sponsors, Patrons and other partners. Please see the attached and help build the momentum which is now just beginning! PVF2001 is an initiative that can truly change the world, if enough people around the world hear about it and join in!!

Please also see the PVF2001 website, http://www.PlanetaryVision.net, and /or respond to David Woolfson, Project Director, with any comments or suggestions. All input is very welcome. David's email is <pd@planetaryvision.net>

Thank You and Happy Holidays,

Joanie Misrack, Pathways To Peace (member of the PVF20001 Founding Member Alliance)

Planetary Vision Festival 2001

As we enter the Third Millennium humanity is in the midst of the most rapid and profound transformation in our history. The challenges and opportunities before us today are unprecedented. Our current social and ecological challenges threaten the continuing survival of our species. At the same time, we have developed incredible new opportunities driven by accelerating revolutions in scientific knowledge, new technologies, global communications and human understanding.

We have arrived at an evolutionary crossroads. The choices made and actions we take today will have a decisive impact on the future of our Earth and all Humankind. Will we be overwhelmed by the massive ecological and societal challenges confronting us or will we overcome them to enter a new era of accomplishment and potential?

The key to our longer-term success is the development of a new "Planetary Consciousness". It is a consciousness that recognizes the essential interdependence and oneness of all humanity and our planetary home. At an individual level it means that, in addition to being citizens of our communities and count