Friday, March 31, 2006

Privatizing the Apocalypse

We're living in an era when it's all for sale.   Come one, come all, buy your nuclear weapons on eBay.  plk
 
 
Published on Thursday, March 30, 2006 by Tom Dispatch
Privatizing the Apocalypse
by Frida Berrigan

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0330-23.htm

Summary:
Started as the super-secret "Project Y" in 1943, the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico has long been the keystone institution of the American nuclear-weapons producing complex.

It was the birthplace of Fat Man and Little Boy, the two nuclear bombs the U.S. dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945.

Last year, the University of California, which has managed the lab for the Department of Energy since its inception, decided to put Los Alamos on the auction block.

In December 2005, construction giant Bechtel won a $553 million yearly management contract to run the sprawling complex, which employs more than 13,000 people and has an estimated $2.2 billion annual budget.

"Privatization" has been in the news ever since George W. Bush became president.

His administration has radically reduced the size of government, turning over to private companies critical governmental functions involving prisons, schools, water, welfare, Medicare, and utilities as well as war-fighting, and is always pushing for more of the same.

Outside of Washington, the pitfalls of privatization are on permanent display in Iraq, where companies like Halliburton have reaped billions in contracts.

Performing jobs once carried out by members of the military -- from base building and mail delivery to food service -- they have bilked the government while undermining the safety of American forces by providing substandard services and products.

Halliburton has been joined by a cottage industry of military-support companies responsible for everything from transportation to interrogation.

On the war front, private companies are ubiquitous, increasingly indispensable, and largely unregulated -- a lethal combination.

Now, the long arm of privatization is reaching deep into an almost unimaginable place at the heart of the national security apparatus --- the laboratory where scientists learned to harness the power of the atom more than 60 years ago and created weapons of apocalyptic proportions.

Nuclear weapons are many things to many people -- the sword of Damocles or the guarantor of American global supremacy, the royal path to the apocalypse or atoms for peace.

BWX and Honeywell formed a new company along with Bechtel to manage and operate the Pantex Plant in Texas which assembled nuclear weapons throughout the Cold War.

At least ten different subcontractors are involved in managing the Hanford nuclear complex.

But the famed nuclear laboratories, Los Alamos, Lawrence Livermore, and Sandia -- where the high priests of nuclear physics are free to explore the outer realms of their craft -- have long been above prosaic bottom-line or board-room considerations.

The keystone of the nuclear complex, it has been dogged by missing classified computer disks, cost overruns on its expensive new projects, and an outspoken cadre of scientists who found their voice on LANL: The Real Story, a blog where once deferential employees blew off steam and exposed lapses in lab management.

Pete Domenici, Republican Senator and Chairman of the powerful Energy and Water Committee, thinks so.

The company reaped tens of millions of dollars in contracts to repair Iraq's schools, for example, but an independent report found that many of the schools Bechtel claimed to have completely refitted, "haven't been touched," and a number of schools remained "in shambles."

It helped build a missile-defense site in the South Pacific, runs the Nevada Test Site where the United States once performed hundreds of above-and underground nuclear tests.

Bechtel is also the "environmental manager" at the Oak Ridge National Lab, which stores highly-enriched uranium, and is carrying out design work at the Yucca Mountain repository where the plan to store 77,000 tons of nuclear waste has environmentalists and community activists up in arms.

Almost two decades after the "nuclear animosity" between the two great superpowers ended, the United States is spending one-and-a-half times the Cold War average on nuclear weapons.

In 2001, the weapons-activities budget of the Department of Energy, which oversees the nuclear weapons complex through its "semi-autonomous" National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), totaled $5.19 billion; and a "revitalized nuclear weapons complex," ready to "design, develop, manufacture, and certify new warheads," means a more than billion-dollar jump in spending to $6.4 billion by fiscal year 2006.

Under each of these programs are many other acronym-heavy, cash-rich programs that seem to lead nowhere -- except toward further nuclear proliferation.

Do nuclear weapons have a role in the "Age of Terror" -- other than as potential weapons for terrorist groups?

In a new and ever-shifting environment of emerging regional powers and wars that transcend national boundaries, the Bush administration is taking a have-it-both-ways approach: It is pushing aggressive non-proliferation policies for chosen enemy nations and embracing a policy of accelerated nuclear proliferation for itself.

Yet, a new era of nuclear weapons for profit threatens to turn Armageddon into a paying operation.


Summarized by Copernic Summarizer

 

Crisis Group Weekly Update for the week of 27 March 2006

Crisis Group key quotes:

On the Aceh peace process:
“The peace process remains very much on track, but everyone concerned about Aceh should realise that the really hard part is just beginning.”
  Sidney Jones, Crisis Groups South East Asia Project Director
  Agence France-Presse, 29 March 2006

On Iraqi distrust of the U.S.:
“The Shiites now believe the Americans, who brought them to power, are engaged in what they call the second betrayal: first the Americans abandoned them in the first Gulf War (in 1991), and now they believe the Americans are turning their backs on them again.”
  Joost Hiltermann, Crisis Groups Middle East Project Director
  Reuters, 28 March 2006

On the protests in Jayapura, Papua:
“The anti-Freeport violence was a way of venting frustration over long-running grievances ranging from a lack of justice for past abuses to poverty and corruption to the role of the military in the province, but the very institution that should have a key role in managing these tensions, the Papuan Peoples Council, is currently paralysed, partly by government mishandling but also by its own ineptitude.”
   Francesa Lawe-Davies, Crisis Group Analyst
   The Age, 23 March 2006

On continuing insecurity in DR Congo:
“You can buy a Kalashnikov in eastern Congo for less than 30 dollars.”
  Jason Stearns, Crisis Group Senior Analyst
  ARD Radio (Germany), 23 March 2006

On growing tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan:
“If the violence in Afghanistan escalates in the spring, then I think we are going to see this relationship become even more tense, and Pakistanis are really concerned about how this affects their relations with the Americans.”
  Samina Ahmed, Crisis Groups South Asia Project Director
  Associated Press, 22 March 2006


To contact Crisis Group’s Media Unit please click here
http://www.crisisgroup.org

The International Crisis Group (Crisis Group) is an independent, non-profit, non-governmental organisation covering over 50 crisis-affected countries and territories across four continents, working through field-based analysis and high-level advocacy to prevent and resolve deadly conflict.

 

Please help save this magnificent creature. plk Posted by Picasa

Florida Panther's Need Your Help


The Florida panther is in big trouble.

Past human persecution and ongoing habitat loss have pushed the Florida panther into only 5 percent of its historic range.

Fewer than 100 survive today, and 10 have died so far this year alone.

Time is running out for the Florida panther. Please send a message right now to tell the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to do all it can do to recover the Florida panther.

Officials are close to completing a management plan for the Florida panther, and we need your help to ensure it does all it can to protect this majestic great cat.

If the federal management plan doesn't provide the strongest protections possible -- including checking the out-of-control development that is driving this great cat to extinction -- we could lose the Florida panther forever.

Florida panthers face tough challenges to their very survival.

The loss, degradation, and fragmentation of panther habitat are among the greatest threats to panther survival. Urbanization, residential development, conversion of lands for farming and logging, mining and mineral exploration, and the lack of land use planning that recognizes panther needs all threaten the Florida panther's existence.

Being struck by vehicles is also an important cause of panther fatalities. Such accidents have claimed the lives of at least five panthers so far this year.

Please send your message today to let federal officials know that you expect them to do all they can to prevent the extinction and promote the recovery of these great cats.

Public comments are due Monday, April 3, so please take action now!

This may be our last opportunity to give the Florida panther a fighting chance as the Southeast continues to develop and our natural areas disappear forever. But with your help, we can help ensure that these critters have a fighting chance.

Sincerely,

Laurie Macdonald, Director
Defenders of Wildlife's Florida office
233 Third Street North
Suite 201
St. Petersburg, FL 33701
Tel: 727-823-3888

P.S. Forward this e-mail to five of your friends, family members or neighbors... Posted by Picasa

Thursday, March 30, 2006

Taking Action on Genocide

Taking Action on Genocide

A Talking Point from The American Progress Action Fund
March 30, 2006
 

For the past three years, Sudan’s Western Darfur region has been undergoing "slow motion genocide.” In the "world's greatest humanitarian crisis," 2.5 million have been driven from their homes and up to 400,000 have died. Some groups put that death toll much higher. At a conference on freedom in Africa yesterday, President Bush said some of his most forceful words on genocide, saying "when we say, genocide, we mean that the genocide needs to be stopped." The problem is his words do not match the actions his administration has taken over the last three years. Sudan's government knows that there is no price to pay for inaction, that there is "no connection between the U.S. bark and its bite." So while the Bush administration struggles to find its voice on genocide, everyday Americans are standing up to make a difference. One hopes that the government will follow.

  • The situation on the ground in Darfur is getting worse. Jan Egeland, the U.N.’s humanitarian chief, said that he fears that Darfur is returning to "the abyss" of early 2004 when Darfur was described as "the killing fields of this world." Security in Darfur has gotten so bad that humanitarian workers are being forced out, allowing for the return of disease, malnutrition, and starvation. In the absence of an extensive humanitarian aid program, a senior U.N. official recently predicted "massively increased mortality." Hundreds of thousands of civilians in Darfur face imminent death.

  • The Bush administration has been too slow to act. After months of calls from international groups, the Bush administration finally began to press the U.N to lead the peacekeeping effort in Darfur. While it is the right approach, it comes a year too late. For months human rights groups have pointed out that the African Union force was under-equipped and inadequate to deal with the conflict. So while the Bush administration sat on the sideline, tens of thousands of lives were lost as a result of that delay.

  • Activists across the country are not waiting for the Bush administration to take strong action against the genocide. Universities and state legislatures around the country are waging a successful effort to divest their financial holdings in corporations doing business with Sudan's government. This month the University of California became the "first major public university system" to divest from companies with financial holdings in Sudan, and colleges around the country are set to follow its path. "To date, Harvard, Stanford, Dartmouth, Samford, Yale, Amherst and Brown have all divested from some of the 30-odd multinational companies currently doing business in Sudan," writes Daniel Millenson of the Sudan Divestment Task Force. They have been joined by a number of state legislatures, including those in Illinois, New Jersey and Oregon, and at least eight other states are considering similar legislation.

To visit the Talking Points archives, please click here.

A good immigration bill?

 
A good immigration bill - Editorials & Commentary - International Herald Tribune
The New York Times

THURSDAY, MARCH 30, 2006

Summary:
Here's one way to kill a cow: take it into the woods in hunting season, paint the word "deer" on it and stand back.

Something like that is happening in the immigration debate in Washington.

Attackers of a smart, tough Senate bill have smeared it with the most mealy-mouthed word in the immigration glossary - amnesty - in hopes of rendering it politically toxic.

They claim that the bill would bestow an official federal blessing of forgiveness on an estimated 12 million people who are living in the United States illegally, rewarding their brazen crimes and encouraging more of the same.

The bill, approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee in a 12-6 vote on Monday, is one America should be proud of.

Four Republicans, including the committee's chairman, Arlen Specter, joined eight Democrats in endorsing a balanced approach to immigration reform.

The bill does not ignore security and border enforcement.

It would nearly double the number of Border Patrol agents, add resources for detaining illegal immigrants and deporting them more quickly, and expand state and local enforcement of immigration laws.

But unlike the bill's counterpart in the House, which makes a virtue out of being tough but not smart, the Specter bill would also take on the hard job of trying to sort out the immigrants who want to stay and follow the rules from those who don't.

It would force them not into buses or jails but into line, where they could become lawful residents and - if they showed they deserved it - citizens.

That's not "amnesty," with its suggestion of getting something for nothing.

But the false label has muddied the issue, playing to people's fear and indignation, and stoking the opportunism of Bill Frist, the Senate majority leader.

Frist has his enforcement-heavy bill in the wings, threatening to make a disgraceful end run around the committee's work.

The alternatives to the Specter bill are senseless.

The enforcement-only approach - building a 700-mile wall and engaging in a campaign of mass deportation to rip 12 million people from the national fabric - would be an impossible waste of time and resources.

It is a weak country that feels it cannot secure its borders and impose law and order on an unauthorized population at the same time.


Summarized by Copernic Summarizer

 

An Important Message to Women Voters: Our Time Has Come!

An Important Message to Women Voters: Our Time Has Come!
by Donna Brazile

for Democracy Dispatches -- Demos.org 03/30/2006

When President George W. Bush commemorated International Women's Day early this month, he did it by singling out women's influence on democracy and noting that, "as women become a part of the democratic process, they help spread freedom and justice and, most importantly of all, hope for a future." The President is right.

We have certainly witnessed a hopeful year for women in democracy. Liberia, Chile, Jamaica and Germany elected their first female heads of state and demonstrated that women from diverse backgrounds in dramatically different countries can get elected, not because of their gender but because of their leadership qualifications. (Note: Peru is also poised to elect a woman President this year)

While a banner year, these four new additions still mean that women head just 12 out of the nearly 200 countries in the world. There are only a handful of countries that can claim equal representation of women in other levels of government, and many advanced western democracies, including the United States and most of Europe, have less than 20 percent female representation in their national legislative bodies. The underlying tenets of democracy presuppose that each person is entitled to his or her representative say in government and its direction. Certainly, such scant female representation does not give women, the majority of the world's population, such legislative privilege.

The roots of democracy are grounded in the belief that individuals have the right to be autonomous, making unfettered decisions about themselves and their lives. We deny women this basic right when we construct a society that does not support and encourage them in their attempts to fulfil their entire potential. How many talented women have failed to realize their leadership capabilities because we, as voting communities, are not comfortable with women running the show?

There have undoubtedly been countless qualified women who dared not dream of becoming President or Prime Minister because the realities of a woman's duties in our society coupled with her own limited self-perceptions and the mechanisms of politics make that dream unattainable.

Since America is founded upon and committed to the underlying principle of allowing individuals the freedom to choose their own paths, we must remove any remaining cultural or even political barriers that discourage women from entering office. Women must be equally encouraged and supported in their leadership pursuits as are their male counterparts.

Unfortunately, the promise of genuine democracy remains unfulfilled not only because women are dramatically underrepresented in the U. S. and many other "democratic" countries. Democracy suffers the strains of elections where many votes are not properly counted, where contentious redistricting battles shore up easy victories for incumbents while effectively removing citizens' ability to choose their representation, and where the high price of entry into campaigns keeps many individuals shut out of politics.

Women must play a role in reforming democracy at all levels. We are uniquely situated to fight for change and must be made to feel empowered to hold our elected leaders accountable because of, and despite, our outsider status in politics. Getting women active and motivated in the political arena will do a lot for our democracy, bring us closer to the governing process, and hopefully remove some barriers that have made us woefully underrepresented in elected office.

Brazile is a weekly contributor and political commentator on CNN’s Inside Politics and American Morning. In addition, she is a columnist for Roll Call Newspaper and a contributing writer for Ms. Magazine.  For more information, you can contact her at www.donnabrazile.com

Picture the Scene

courtesy of Laughing At Ourselves

Picture the Scene:

Moses and his flock arrive at the sea, with the Egyptians in hot pursuit. Moses calls a staff meeting.

(Moses) Well, how are we going to get across the sea? We need a fast solution. The Egyptians are close behind us.

(General) Normally, I'd recommend that we build a pontoon bridge to carry us across. But there's not enough time - the Egyptians are too close.

(Admiral) Normally, I'd recommend that we build barges to carry us across. But time is too short.

(Moses) Does anyone have a solution?

Just then, his Public Relations man raises his hand.

(Moses) You! You have a solution?

(PRMan) No, but I can promise you this: If you can find a way out of this one, I can get you two or three pages in the Old Testament!



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Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Tuberculosis Patients Still Waiting for New Diagnostic Tools and Treatment

As a teenager I thought that tuberculosis would be a disease of distant memory by the time I reached 40.   But a disease that was once virtually wiped out is on the rise with a vengeance.  plk
 
 
Tuberculosis Patients Still Waiting for New Diagnostic Tools and Treatment
Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)
 

The number of tuberculosis (TB) cases is increasing worldwide. This is particularly true in countries with high HIV prevalence. There is still no evolution in terms of development of new diagnostic tools and treatment. The only available ones are archaic and do not allow the efficient detection and treatment of TB in developing countries, where 99 percent of deaths occur.

Tuberculosis is one of the three main killer infectious diseases. Each year, nearly 9 million people develop the disease of which about two million die, mainly in developing countries. The worst situation is found in Africa where most of the patients co-infected with HIV live.

In this context, diagnostic tools and treatments remain limited and archaic. "To diagnose the disease, we still rely on the microscope examination of sputum, a method developed more than 120 years ago and that only allows the detection of 45-65 percent of cases. This rate is even lower for patients infected by both HIV and TB," says Dr. Marie-Eve Raguenaud, a TB specialist with Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). Due to the inefficiency of the test, the treatment of half the patients in developing countries is often delayed or not started at all

Also, treatment is long and complex. First-line treatments used today were developed 50 years ago. Patients have to follow a daily treatment for 6 to 8 months which is cumbersome and therefore likely to be interrupted if no support system is in place. At the same time, it is crucial to follow the treatment to completion in order to make sure it is effective and to avoid the development of drug resistance. This may lead to a new episode of sickness or even to death.

To avoid the interruption of treatment, the strategy recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) requires that patients take their drugs under the direct supervision of medical staff or a trained member of the community. This means that, in most cases, patients have to go to a health center to perform this daily action. This strategy is burdensome for patients and limits access to treatment for TB patients. Also, treatment is long and complex. First-line treatments used today were developed 50 years ago. Patients have to follow a daily treatment for 6 to 8 months which is cumbersome and therefore likely to be interrupted if no support system is in place. At the same time, it is crucial to follow the treatment to completion in order to make sure it is effective and to avoid the development of drug resistance. This may lead to a new episode of sickness or even to death.

Read the rest of the article:  http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/news/tuberculosis/index.cfm

 

The Secrets That They Keep

The Secrets That They Keep
A Talking Point from The American Progress Action Fund
 

March 16, 2006

Forty years ago, Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), a landmark law that opened the government’s records to public scrutiny.  FOIA allows ordinary citizens to request public documents from their government and hold it accountable.  Yet now in its 40th year, FOIA — and open government — is under attack.  Since 9/11, the Bush administration has stalled or ignored an increased number of FOIA requests, classified a record number of documents, stepped up punishment for whistleblowers and tightened secrecy in the name of national security.  From refusing to release information about detainees at Guantanamo Bay, to keeping lawmakers and the public in the dark about an illegal, warrantless domestic wiretapping program, “The administration’s preference for secrecy is less about winning the war on terrorism than simply avoiding public scrutiny.”

  • The administration has actively worked to make less information available.  In 2004, the American public made over four million FOIA requests (PDF), a 25 percent jump from the previous year.  However, the Bush administration increased FOIA funding by only five percent in 2005 and by the end of 2004, the government had 147,810 FOIA requests pending, a 24 percent increase over the previous year.  And the administration was planning to restrict information prior to 9/11.  In 2001, then-Attorney General John Ashcroft issued a memo —  in the works long before the 9/11 attacks — assuring government agencies that, “When you carefully consider FOIA requests and decide to withhold records ... you can be assured that the Department of Justice will defend your decisions.”

  • The government is spending money to keep information classified and is declassifying significantly less information.  Keeping information secret is expensive; declassifying a document costs only $1 (PDF).  Maintaining a classified document costs $148.  Classifying a new document costs $460.  The Bush administration has shown that they’re willing to spend a lot of money to keep information quiet.  In 2004, the Bush administration classified a record 15.6 million documents — 81 percent more than before 9/11 — and spent $7.2 billion securing its secret information, “more than any annual cost in at least a decade.”
  • The Bush administration is also finding new ways to crack down on whistle-blowers and leaks.  The administration has recently come under criticism for cracking down on leaks by putting in place “initiatives targeting journalists and their possible government sources” and by prohibiting government officials from “discussing even unclassified issues related to the NSA [spying] program.”  John Dean, President Nixon’s legal counsel during the Watergate scandal, called President Bush and Vice President Cheney “a throwback to the Nixon time,” and even Ari Fleischer, Bush’s former press secretary, recently admitted that “This administration is more secretive.”

To visit the Talking Points archives, please click here.

 

Plight Deepens for Black Men, Studies Warn

 
Plight Deepens for Black Men, Studies Warn
by Erik Eckholm
 
Published on Monday, March 20, 2006 by the New York Times
Summary:
BALTIMORE --- Black men in the United States face a far more dire situation than is portrayed by common employment and education statistics, a flurry of new scholarly studies warn, and it has worsened in recent years even as an economic boom and a welfare overhaul have brought gains to black women and other groups.

Focusing more closely than ever on the life patterns of young black men, the new studies, by experts at Columbia, Princeton, Harvard and other institutions, show that the huge pool of poorly educated black men are becoming ever more disconnected from the mainstream society, and to a far greater degree than comparable white or Hispanic men.

Especially in the country's inner cities, the studies show, finishing high school is the exception, legal work is scarcer than ever and prison is almost routine, with incarceration rates climbing for blacks even as urban crime rates have declined.

Although the problems afflicting poor black men have been known for decades, the new data paint a more extensive and sobering picture of the challenges they face.

"There's something very different happening with young black men, and it's something we can no longer ignore," said Ronald B. Mincy, professor of social work at Columbia University and editor of "Black Males Left Behind" (Urban Institute Press, 2006).

"Over the last two decades, the economy did great," Mr. Mincy said, "and low-skilled women, helped by public policy, latched onto it.

But young black men were falling farther back."

In response to the worsening situation for young black men, a growing number of programs are placing as much importance on teaching life skills --- like parenting, conflict resolution and character building --- as they are on teaching job skills.

In 2000, 65 percent of black male high school dropouts in their 20's were jobless --- that is, unable to find work, not seeking it or incarcerated.

"I was with the street life, but now I feel like I've got to get myself together," Mr. Brannon said recently in the row-house flat he shares with his girlfriend and four children.

A group of men, including Mr. Brannon, gathered at the Center for Fathers, Families and Workforce Development, one of several private agencies trying to help men build character along with workplace skills.

"If a man wants to change, why won't society give him a chance to prove he's a changed person?"

Mr. Baker has a lot of record to overcome, he admits, not least his recent 15-year stay in the state penitentiary for armed robbery.

Mr. Baker led a visitor down the Pennsylvania Avenue strip he wants to escape --- past idlers, addicts and hustlers, storefront churches and fortresslike liquor stores --- and described a life that seemed inevitable.

Terrible schools, absent parents, racism, the decline in blue collar jobs and a subculture that glorifies swagger over work have all been cited as causes of the deepening ruin of black youths.

Closer studies reveal that in inner cities across the country, more than half of all black men still do not finish high school, said Gary Orfield, an education expert at Harvard and editor of "Dropouts in America" (Harvard Education Press, 2004).

Dropout rates for Hispanic youths are as bad or worse but are not associated with nearly as much unemployment or crime, the data show.

By 2004, 50 percent of black men in their 20's who lacked a college education were jobless, as were 72 percent of high school dropouts, according to data compiled by Bruce Western, a sociologist at Princeton and author of the forthcoming book "Punishment and Inequality in America" (Russell Sage Press).

Mr. Holzer of Georgetown and his co-authors cite two factors that have curbed black employment in particular.

First, the high rate of incarceration and attendant flood of former offenders into neighborhoods have become major impediments.


Summarized by Copernic Summarizer

 

A New Ethics Needed to Save Life on Earth

 
Published on Friday, March 24, 2006 by Inter Press Service

A New Ethics Needed to Save Life on Earth
by Mario Osava
 

 
CURITIBA, Brazil - Emotions and sensitivity are "the essence, the core dimension of the human being," said the Brazilian theologian at a panel on "ethics, biodiversity and sustainability". The panel formed part of the Global Civil Society Forum, held parallel to the Mar. 20-31 Eighth Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP8).

It is not reason but feeling that is involved in our first contact with reality, and "today's great crisis is not economic, political or religious, but a crisis of affect, of the capacity to feel a connection with others," he said.

It is indispensable to "take care of all living things," and science shows that cooperation is the "supreme law of the universe," he added.

"The world is not made up of objects but of relationships. It was cooperation that made possible the leap from animal to humanity, and without it we are dehumanised, which is what occurs in the case of capitalism," the theologian told around 300 activists, most of them small farmers.

He added that the principle of responsibility underlies the criticism of transgenic products, the need to take precautions in the face of unpredictable and unknown consequences, the possibility that genetic modification of food could break down the balance between the "billions of bacteria" and molecules that make up a human being.

Boff, who left the priesthood after suffering sanctions at the hands of the Vatican for expressing "dangerous ideas" over the past two decades, has outlined his ecological concerns in several books. He has been invited to give talks at several panels at the COP8.

Boff is one of the founders of liberation theology, which is based on a "preferential option for the poor", whose proponents' involvement in the struggles of the poor and marginalised sectors of the population often brought them into conflict with a more conservative Catholic Church hierarchy in the past.

The expression "sustainable development" is "a deception to undermine the demands of environmentalists" by joining together two contradictory concepts, he told the participants in the Global Civil Society Forum.

Development "comes from the capitalist economy," which supposes a constant rise in production, consumption and wealth as part of an illusion of "infinite resources," while sustainability has to do with biology, "the dynamic equilibrium of interrelated beings," he said.

In order for the consumption levels of industrialised countries to become universal, "two additional planet earths" would be needed, he said.

But earlier international conferences have already concluded that by continuing along that road, the earth would no longer be sustainable by 2030 or 2035, and would suffer major catastrophes, said Boff. "We have become the earth's Satan," said Boff. "Either we change or we die."

An equally menacing portrait was painted by Louise Vandelac, director of the Environmental Sciences Institute at the University of Quebec at Montreal (UQAM), Canada. Vandelac focussed on the area of biotechnology, and warned that more than biodiversity, it is "the world's biological security that is threatened by the cannibalism of the market."

A second generation of transgenic research and technology has now emerged, devoted to producing genetically modified animals, she said.

The research being carried out today is very different from that of the previous 25 years, she noted. Scientific literature from the last few months reveals that more than 200 tests have already been conducted on pigs, rabbits, cows and fish, and soon the first transgenic salmon could be unveiled in Canada, she reported.

This technology has been highly concentrated up until now, with just four countries - the United States, Argentina, Brazil and Canada û accounting for 96 percent of transgenic commercial production. Moreover, 95 percent of this production is made up of only four crops, namely soybeans, cotton, corn and canola. In the meantime, Monsanto Roundup Ready (RR) soybeans occupy a full 75 percent of the total area planted with transgenic crops in the world today.

The biotechnology industry's marked interest in developing pesticide-resistant plant varieties owes to the fact that producing a new pesticide costs ten times more, said Vandelac.

Roundup Ready seeds, which produce crops that are resistant to Monsanto's own glyphosate-based herbicide Roundup, have guaranteed continued sales of the weedicide. The use of Roundup on transgenic crops dropped off during the first few years, but is now growing at a rate of four percent annually.

Studies reveal a 70 percent decline in the toad population in areas where transgenic soybeans are grown. One hypothesis is that Roundup herbicide is altering the animals' hormonal systems and thus interfering with their reproduction, said Vandelac.

Nevertheless, there are "new hopes" emerging as people are becoming more aware of the threats posed by transgenics and pushing for clear regulations that enforce limits on the ambitions of private enterprise, with social movements joining with environmentalists, trade unionists, feminists and other activists in defence of biological security, she concluded.

Argentine lawmaker Marta Maffei called for efforts to combat "cultural domination," the mother of all dominations, in her view.

Maffei maintained that politicians adopt decisions "without knowing anything about environmental issues," and depend on the advice of specialists who work for private companies that have no interest whatsoever in preserving biodiversity.

Social mobilisation is the only way to break this "vicious cycle of environmental domination," she declared.
 

Copyright © 2006 IPS-Inter Press Service

Understanding The Immigration Debate

It's time for all Americans to get real and understand the issues involving proposed immigration reform and securing the American borders.  
 
Fact -- If this country is serious about securing its borders against terrorism it must enforce its border security laws.  
 
Fact -- There is a difference between ILLEGAL Immigration and LEGAL Immigration and all people that are against illegal immigration are not racists.  In fact,  most are humanitarian people who want to see an end to the thousands of people that die every year in the hands of illegal smugglers and are exploited by sweatshops and shady employers.  Legal immigrants always have been and always will be welcome. 
 
Fact -- When you discuss immigration many Americans automatically think of Mexican immigrants but what about the hundreds of Haitian boat people that risk their lives every year.  There can ( should) only be one immigration policy that applies to all. 
 
Fact  -- the phrase "jobs that American's won't do" is ridiculous and insulting.   Why don't they say jobs that some American businesses don't want to ( or can't afford to)  pay a decent wage for an American citizen to perform.
 
Lastly why isn't anyone stating the obvious.  It is time for the Mexican government and President Vincent Fox to develop an economic policy that will improve the economy of Mexico and make life better for the Mexican people.   It seems that the only plan that he has is sending his impoverished to the US to get jobs so they can send a portion of their income back home.   It is time to stop the collusion between the Mexican government and US businesses that prosper via cheap, illegal labor.
 
plk.
 
 
Time for Comprehensive Immigration Reform
A Talking Point from The American Progress Action Fund
 

March 24, 2006

Principles of Comprehensive Immigration Reform

  • Meaningful Reform.  Meaningful immigration reform must protect our security, allow our economy to grow, protect the wages of U.S. workers, honor our value of rewarding hard work, and respect the tradition of the United States as a dynamic country of immigrants.        
  • McCain-Kennedy’s Comprehensive Reform.  Illegal immigration is at an all time-high.  The number of undocumented in the U.S. has ballooned to roughly 12 million as of March 2006.  The McCain-Kennedy Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act  provides for meaningful, comprehensive reform through measures to increase border security, crack down on businesses that hire undocumented workers, and provide a path for immigrants to move out of the shadows and earn citizenship.   

Earned Citizenship vs. Guest Worker Programs and Amnesty  

  • Bush’s “Guest Worker Only” Approach Amounts to Indentured Servitude.  Many conservatives, including President Bush, support a limited, temporary “guest worker” program.  Bush’s approach, which allows undocumented workers to continue to work in the U.S. for six year — but offers them no labor protections or the chance to earn citizenship — amounts to a 21st century form of indentured servitude.  This proposal would institutionalize a permanent underclass in which millions of “guest workers” are paid substantially lower wages than U.S. workers.     
  • “Earned Citizenship” Honors Hard Work, Our Immigrant Tradition.  McCain-Kennedy’s  Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act includes a responsible plan to help undocumented workers earn citizenship.  Undocumented individuals seeking earned citizenship would have to apply for a six-year temporary status, have a job, pay taxes, obey the law, learn English, and pay a $2,000 penalty for having come here illegally.  This is a rigorous but fair process which honors the American value of rewarding hard work and our tradition as a dynamic country of immigrants.  

Tough, Competent Enforcement

  • Crackdown on Border Security and Corporate Abettors.  Increased border security is an essential part of reform.  We also have to crack down on the corporate abettors that routinely and knowingly hire undocumented workers.  The Bush administration has a dismal record on employer enforcement.  In 2004, the administration issued only three notices of intent to fine employers (PDF) for hiring undocumented workers, a drop from 417 in 1999, according to a Government Accountability Report.  As long as employers are willing to hire undocumented workers, people will find a way to come here illegally.  We need tougher penalties and tougher enforcement. 
  • Mass Deportation is Unrealistic.  In testimony before the Senate, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Chertoff took deportation off the table saying that it would be “hugely, hugely difficult to do” and cost “billions and billions and billions of dollars.”  The Center for American Progress released a report last summer which estimated that it would cost $41.2 billion annually for five years to deport the undocumented population.  That is more than the entire DHS budget. 
  • Protect our Security; Bring the Undocumented Out of the Shadows.  Keeping these individuals in the shadows poses a potential threat to our security.  We do not know who is here or who is trying to enter the country.  Bringing the undocumented out of the shadows and subjecting them to a background check as part of the path to citizenship will enable law enforcement to focus on terrorists and criminals.   

To visit the Talking Points archives, please click here.

 

Immigration Debate Heats Up

March 29 , 2006

President George Bush is heading to Cancun today to meet with Mexican President Vicente Fox at a time when the immigration debate is heating up at home. His visit comes against a backdrop of protests over the weekend and yesterday where an estimated one million people rallied against the immigration bills being proposed by House Republicans and President Bush. That sentiment is echoed in a new poll released yesterday by New America Media and co-sponsored by American Progress and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund. President Bush should pay attention to what happened this weekend — people are certainly paying attention to what is happening in D.C.

  • The immigrant community in the U.S. is alarmed by the tone of the immigration debate. As evidenced by the spontaneous rallies across the country, legal immigrants are disturbed by the tone of the debate in D.C. The poll shows that majorities of legal immigrants from Latin America, Asia, Africa and Europe feel that “the anti-immigrant sentiment is growing in the United States” and that it is affecting their daily lives.

  • The immigrant community is not impressed with the actions of those in Congress. The major political “actors” in the immigration debate receive relatively low ratings from legal immigrants on what they have done so far on immigration. That result is not surprising — with the exception of the Senate Judiciary action on Monday (the poll was conducted prior to this action), what’s come out of Congress on immigration has not been encouraging. Bills, including the one Senator Bill Frist (R-TN) is set to introduce today, are more about criminalizing people than truly addressing the problem.

  • Immigrants, like the majority of Americans, support comprehensive immigration reform. When asked about various ways to address immigration, the top three proposals were components of the McCain-Kennedy immigration bill. Legal immigrants also overwhelmingly support McCain-Kennedy when asked to compare it to President Bush’s proposal and to House-passed legislation. And judging from the rallies over the past few days, the U.S. immigrant population is not going to sit on the sidelines during this debate.

To visit the Talking Points archives, please click here.

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

The Signs Are All Around Us -- But Will We Listen

If you care about the environment I encourage you to pick up a copy of the April 3rd issue of Time Magazine and read the article on global warning.

The magazine's cover boldly states "Global Warming: Be Worried. Be Very Worried".

Global warming isn't new news to anyone who's been watching the environment for the past 15 years. When Al Gore wrote his book "Earth in the Balance" many people snickered. Now after the recent tsunamis, hurricanes and cyclones many of those same snickerers are ready to take this issue seriously. Let us all pray that it is not to late to make a difference. plk


TIME Magazine -- Feeling The Heat
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1176980,00.html?internalid=AOT_h_03-26-2006_global_warming_



Summary:
Sunday, Mar. 26, 2006 Feeling The Heat

Global warming is already disrupting the biological world, pushing many species to the brink of extinction and turning others into runaway pests.

QUIVER TREE This striking giant aloe was given its name by the San people of southern Africa, who use the tree's hollow branches as quivers for their arrows.

PINON MOUSE This tiny resident of the southwestern U.S. has long eked out its living in juniper woodlands, but in California it is heading for higher, cooler altitudes in the High Sierra conifer forests.

BUTTERFLIES Researchers have documented shifts in the ranges of many butterflies. One study looked at 35 species of nonmigratory butterflies whose ranges extended from northern Africa to northern Europe. The scientists found that two-thirds of the species had shifted their home ranges northward by 20 to 150 miles. Though butterflies might be sturdier than they look, scientists believe many species will not survive the impact of climate change.

KING PROTEA It is the national flower of South Africa, just one among the many spectacular members of the large family of flowering plants named after Proteus, a Greek god capable of changing his shape at will. Scientists fear that more than a third of all Proteaceae species could disappear by 2050.

More than two-thirds of the 110 species of colorful harlequin frogs in Central and South America, two shown above, have also disappeared. Climate change seems to be making frogs more vulnerable to infection by the fungus.

What troubles scientists especially is that if we are only in the early stages of warming, all these lost and endangered animals might be just the first of many to go.


Summarized by Copernic Summarizer

Thursday, March 23, 2006

Katrina Survivors: Insult to Injury

Dear Friends,
 
I signed the following petition and ask that you consider doing so also.  Please don't let the displaced residents of New Orleans be discounted.
Thanks for your consideration
 
Pam
 
+++++++++++++++++
 
Dear Pamela,

New Orleans municipal elections scheduled for this spring could set new records for minority disenfranchisement. The team that rebuilds New Orleans may be elected without input of the majority of the city's displaced residents -- who are largely African American -- who cannot afford to return to vote.

This would add insult to the injury of those already victimized by Hurricane Katrina.

  • An estimated 45-65% of the nearly 300,000 registered voters from New Orleans still remain displaced outside of the city, and the election is scheduled for April 22. 
  • Of these, 66% aren't even in the state of Louisiana.
  • An overwhelming majority of these displaced voters are poor and African American and will be directly affected by their elected government.

This is a national issue, not just a local one. Allowing an election to proceed that so clearly contradicts the principles of fairness and equality at the heart of our democracy fundamentally undermines the American way.

People For has been working with the NAACP to fight to have these elections postponed until satellite voting centers can be set up in cities outside Louisiana with large numbers of displaced New Orleans voters. But the federal Justice Department has refused to step in, failing to meet its obligations under the Voting Rights Act. Louisiana's Legislature, which comes back into session next week, seems unlikely to take action either.

I am writing to ask you to sign onto a statement calling on Louisiana officials to reconsider. If satellite voting centers could be set up in the U.S. for Iraqis to vote in their recent elections, surely we should do at least as much for Americans displaced in their own country.

http://www.pfaw.org/go/NOUnfairElection

Meanwhile, the Election Protection Coalition -- led by PFAW Foundation, the NAACP, and the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law -- is taking steps to protect the rights of New Orleans voters. The NAACP has already opened 15 Voter Assistance Centers nationwide to tell displaced New Orleanians about their options for voting and help them to cast ballots that will count, and PFAWF has helped train volunteers at those centers. The toll-free Election Protection Hotline (1-866-OUR-VOTE) is gearing up, staffed with volunteer lawyers who help displaced New Orleans residents register to vote, request absentee ballots, and determine how and where they can vote, as well as provide other assistance.

People For activists must be on the front lines in this battle to protect voting rights. Take the first step today by signing onto our statement.

http://www.pfaw.org/go/NOUnfairElection

Sincerely,
Sharon J. Lettman
Director
PFAW Foundation's Election Protection Campaign

Taking A Deep Breath

Dear Friends,

 

As a few of you have noticed there have been long breaks in between my blog posts during the past few months.  A couple of you have even emailed me to ask why my website still has a winter banner scene.  Well in addition to recuperating from major surgery, I decided to take some much needed time to simply BREATH.  And while breathing and renewing my energy take time to regain my spiritual center and rediscover my direction.  

 

Reading my daily newsfeeds and blog subscriptions was simply overwhelming.  It seemed like there were so many challenges, so many issues that needed to be discussed, and so many charities to support, so little time and even fewer resources.  Squeezing all of this in after my 9-5 was done left my physical and emotional well completely dry. 

 

There has been so much going on in the world -- Iraq, Iran, Darfur,  Katrina, Rita, Larry,  corruption, torture, corporate  greed,  government wiretaps, global warming, earthquakes, mudslides, bird flu -- and virtually every end-time prophecy named in the Christian Bible.   People are suffering.  Many feel lied to and betrayed - a few cry out - some protest and sadly a few explode in violence.  Many people have lost all faith in government and aren't sure of the media.   They would love to have answers but aren't even sure of the questions.  They watch the news and ring their hands in silence.  Some chalk it all up to "living in the last days" and see no use in trying to fight the inevitable.  Others turn on American Idol or Dancing with the Stars and numb their minds enough to get a few hours of sleep.   Some self-medicate with alcohol, some with drugs, some with food, some with sex, some with work and some with money.  For many, there is no greater vision than getting through the next day.

 

So many of us sense the same thing.  Our world is changing at an inhuman pace.  And humanity is suffering for it.  We judge the state of the economy by economic indicators and don't see the faces of the children that go to bed hungry at night.  We applaud enormous corporate earnings and discount the auto worker that was just laid off.   We failed to hold our political officials accountable and now we are outraged that they've sold us down the river.  We believe that we are promoting democracy in one part of the world and turn a blind eye to genocide in another.    Behind every news story whether it be a natural disaster, political blunder or economic failure there are people, human beings, human lives that impacted.   Our world is in trouble and we cannot just sit and wring our hands or resolutely wait for "the rapture". 

 

We must regain our spiritual center. We must pray. We must ask God for miracles.  We must believe that miracles are possible.  We must clean our closets,  throw out the unneeded, and make room for the new.   We must prepare ourselves to take a leap of faith -- to do what we never before imagined.   We must take this marvelous journey, learning our lessons and then sharing what we've learned with others.  We must care about this world and  become instruments of positive change.   We must not give in to hopelessness,   must not listen to doubters  and must look positively to the future. 

 

Some of us must blog even if very few read.  Some must host chat groups even if very few speak. Some must manage websites which few may visit.   Some must write elected officials who may respond with form letters..  We must watch CNN and CSPAN and must read the mainstream print media and the weblogs.  We must encourage,  support, inform and learn from each other.  Some of us must bare our souls and wear our hearts on our sleeves -- open for public ridicule. 

 

 But every once in a while we must go to a quiet corner, be still and BREATH.  

 

Taking A Deep Breath

Dear Friends,

 

As a few of you have noticed there have been long breaks in between my blog posts during the past few months.  A couple of you have even emailed me to ask why my website still has a winter banner scene.  Well in addition to recuperating from major surgery, I decided to take some much needed time to simply BREATH.  And while breathing and renewing my energy take time to regain my spiritual center and rediscover my direction.  

 

Reading my daily newsfeeds and blog subscriptions was simply overwhelming.  It seemed like there were so many challenges, so many issues that needed to be discussed, and so many charities to support, so little time and even fewer resources.  Squeezing all of this in after my 9-5 was done left my physical and emotional well completely dry. 

 

There has been so much going on in the world -- Iraq, Iran, Darfur,  Katrina, Rita, Larry,  corruption, torture, corporate  greed,  government wiretaps, global warming, earthquakes, mudslides, bird flu -- and virtually every end-time prophecy named in the Christian Bible.   People are suffering.  Many feel lied to and betrayed - a few cry out - some protest and sadly a few explode in violence.  Many people have lost all faith in government and aren't sure of the media.   They would love to have answers but aren't even sure of the questions.  They watch the news and ring their hands in silence.  Some chalk it all up to "living in the last days" and see no use in trying to fight the inevitable.  Others turn on American Idol or Dancing with the Stars and numb their minds enough to get a few hours of sleep.   Some self-medicate with alcohol, some with drugs, some with food, some with sex, some with work and some with money.  For many, there is no greater vision than getting through the next day.

 

So many of us sense the same thing.  Our world is changing at an inhuman pace.  And humanity is suffering for it.  We judge the state of the economy by economic indicators and don't see the faces of the children that go to bed hungry at night.  We applaud enormous corporate earnings and discount the auto worker that was just laid off.   We failed to hold our political officials accountable and now we are outraged that they've sold us down the river.  We believe that we are promoting democracy in one part of the world and turn a blind eye to genocide in another.    Behind every news story whether it be a natural disaster, political blunder or economic failure there are people, human beings, human lives that impacted.   Our world is in trouble and we cannot just sit and wring our hands or resolutely wait for "the rapture". 

 

We must regain our spiritual center. We must pray. We must ask God for miracles.  We must believe that miracles are possible.  We must clean our closets,  throw out the unneeded, and make room for the new.   We must prepare ourselves to take a leap of faith -- to do what we never before imagined.   We must take this marvelous journey, learning our lessons and then sharing what we've learned with others.  We must care about this world and  become instruments of positive change.   We must not give in to hopelessness,   must not listen to doubters  and must look positively to the future. 

 

Some of us must blog even if very few read.  Some must host chat groups even if very few speak. Some must manage websites which few may visit.   Some must write elected officials who may respond with form letters..  We must watch CNN and CSPAN and must read the mainstream print media and the weblogs.  We must encourage,  support, inform and learn from each other.  Some of us must bare our souls and wear our hearts on our sleeves -- open for public ridicule. 

 

 But every once in a while we must go to a quiet corner, be still and BREATH.  

 

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Your tax files for sale? IRS says go for it

Yes it is true.  The IRS wants to allow tax-preparation companies to sell your information to marketers. 
 
As tax day in the US draws nearer this story is getting more coverage.  In fact, tonight it was a featured story on CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight
Lou called the story "The Best Government Money Can Buy".   I think it qualifies for Ripley's Believe It Or Not.
 
Sadly, if this proposed regulatory change takes effect without sufficient consumer awareness and public education millions of people may
unknowingly sign away their right to privacy.  Senior citizens and those that do not carefully read the fine print of documents provided
by their tax preparers can easily fall prey.  The impact will be long term and irreversible and the increased risk of identity theft staggering. 
 
If you have never written an elected official about anything it may be time to reconsider.    
 
plk

----------------------------------------------------------------------
The original article can be found on SFGate.com here:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/03/09/BUGEAHKOC034.DTL
 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday, March 9, 2006 (SF Chronicle)
Your tax files for sale? IRS says go for it
Kathleen Pender


   The Internal Revenue Service has proposed a new rule that would let tax
preparers sell or share a client's tax-return information with third
parties, as long as they got the client's consent.

   Three consumer organizations on Wednesday called the proposal shocking and
urged the IRS to drop it.

   They fear that many taxpayers could be rushed or duped into signing the
consent form when they are signing their tax returns and related
documents. They could end up losing control over financial data they
wouldn't want their closest friends or family to see, much less outside
marketing and database firms.

   "If you have someone doing the paper shuffle -- sign here, sign here, sign
here -- there is tremendous opportunity for mischief," says Ed
Mierzwinski, consumer program director with the U.S. Public Interest
Research Group.

   The proposal is part of a larger plan for overhauling the decades-old
section of the IRS code that regulates how tax preparers can use and
disclose confidential taxpayer information.

   A hearing on the overall proposal is scheduled for April 4.

   Current law generally prohibits tax preparers from using a client's
financial information for anything other than completing the tax return.
However, preparers can use this information to sell "currently offered"
products or services, such as refund anticipation loans and investment
products, if they obtain the customer's consent. They can also share this
sensitive information with an "affiliated group," again with consent.

   The proposed regulations would let tax preparers share return information
with nonaffiliated groups as well, with the customer's OK.

   The IRS, with a straight face, says the existing prohibitions against
sharing confidential data with outside parties "restrict the ability of
taxpayers to control and direct the use of their own tax return
information as they see fit. The proposed regulations adopt an approach
that ensures taxpayers are provided with a meaningful opportunity to
consent to the use and disclosure of their tax return information.
Accordingly, the proposed rules revoke the affiliated-group and currently
offered restrictions."

   To its credit, the IRS does propose specific rules regarding the format,
content and font size of consent forms. Each consent would require a
separate paper or electronic document. The consent must identify each type
of product or service for which the tax preparer may solicit tax-return
information. It also must specify which parts of the tax return are being
disclosed.

   The form would have to say: "Warning: Once your tax return information is
disclosed to a third party per your consent, we have no control over what
that third party does with your tax return information. If the third party
uses or discloses your tax return information for purposes other than the
purposes for which you authorized the disclosure, under Federal tax law,
we are not responsible for that subsequent use or disclosure, and Federal
tax law may not protect you from that disclosure."

   It's hard to imagine that anyone would sign the form after reading that
warning. But if no one would consent, then why even allow it?

   The IRS provided no comment beyond the proposal and a press release, which
heralded a provision that would prohibit tax preparers from sending tax
returns overseas without the customer's consent. Some U.S. companies have
started outsourcing tax prep work to places like India.

   The offshore restriction was needed because "it is difficult ... to pursue
a criminal action ... or to collect a civil penalty" from a tax preparer
outside the United States, the IRS said in its proposal.

   H&R Block and Jackson Hewitt, two of the largest tax-prep outfits, did not
return requests for a comment.

   The IRS published the proposal in the Federal Register in early December,
but it has not gotten much attention until now.

   Before this week, only three comment letters had been filed and none was
related to the third-party data-sharing provision, according to Heather
Bennett, an editor with Tax Notes, a trade publication.

   The public comment period ended Wednesday, the same day the consumer
groups filed their objection. In addition to U.S. PIRG, the groups were
the National Consumer Law Center and the Consumer Federation of America.

   "Everyone thinks the IRS is the Fort Knox of taxpayer information," says
Mierzwinski of U.S. PIRG. "Anyone who knows its history knows it is not."

   He says he sees this new proposal as "part of a trend toward privatization
of the government."

   For the past few years, the IRS has let more than a dozen commercial
tax-preparation companies advertise on its Web site. The companies offer
free tax-prep software to select groups of people and provide links to
their own Web site from www.irs.gov. (For a history of this odd alliance,
see my Jan. 16 column, online at sfgate.com/columnists.)

   Consumer groups have opposed this alliance because it might look like the
government is endorsing these companies. Also, many companies use their
"free" offers to sell customers on other products such as refund
anticipation loans, which can carry exorbitant interest rates.

   Chi Chi Wu, an attorney with the National Consumer Law Center, says
privacy protections are essential because of the "largely voluntary nature
of the U.S. tax system. Our system depends on taxpayers providing detailed
personal financial information to the federal government to ensure
accurate payment of taxes, the lifeblood of government."

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 2006 SF Chronicle



Monday, March 20, 2006

TruthOrFiction.com eRumor Report

Please check out TruthorFiction.com whenever you receive an email that sounds questionable.  It's one of the best sites I know for separating internet fact from fiction.  plk

From:  Rich Buhler
RE:  eRumor report


Boy, the eRumor mill is churning.

We've got one right now that has had some of the widest circulation of anything for quite a while.

It's the FORMOSAN TERMITES story.

The eRumor says that trees felled by the hurricanes in New Orleans are being turned into piles of chips.  The piles are available to anyone who wants them and the state has appealed to other states to come get them.  The problem is that the trees were infested with Formosan termites and may end up in the mulch you buy from your local nursery or home improvement store.

The story is FICTION!   We're guessing it was written by someone who had good intent but who simply assumed a lot.

It is true that New Orleans is a hot bed of Formosan termites, one of the most destructive termites known to man.   The USDA estimates that they are in 30% of the trees in New Orleans.  

There is not much danger, however, of them ending up in your mulch in California, Minnesota, New York or anywhere else outside of the South and for several reasons:

1. There is a quarantine preventing any hurricane damaged materials from being shipped outside of the parishes of New Orleans.  That includes downed trees, chipped trees, and new or used lumber.
2. Most of the downed trees were underwater, which killed the termites that inhabited them.
3. Most of the chipped trees are either being burned or used in landfills.
4. Experts we interviewed said the termites would probably not survive the chipping process and if they did would not survive living in tightly sealed, hot bags of mulch.
5. Stores like Home Depot and Lowes buy mulch only from suppliers that comply with the standards of the Soil and Mulch Council.

For more details, go to:
http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/t/formosan-termites.htm
Or click SEARCH at the top of any page at TruthOrFiction.com and use TERMITES as the search term.


Other stories on the eRumor Hit Parade right now:


CITGO is owned by the country of Venezuela whose president is anti-U.S.-Truth!

This story calls for a boycott of CITGO gas stations in protest.  

CITGO is the American subsidiary of the state-run Venezuelan oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela SA.    Additionally, the leftist president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, is highly critical of the U.S. and a close ally of Cuba's Fidel Castro.

For more details, go to:
<http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/v/venezuela.htm>
Or click SEARCH at the top of any page at TruthOrFiction.com and use VENEZUELA  as the search term.



Popular minister and musician Hezekiah Walker has come out of the closet as homosexual-Fiction!

People often ask me whether eRumors can cause harm.   This one is an example of how they can.

Hezekiah Walker, known as the "Hip-Hop pastor,"  is the leader of the popular Love Fellowship Choir from Brooklyn, New York.   A rumor was published on an Internet music news site that claimed that Walker was homosexual, was divorcing his wife, had given her a sexually transmitted disease, had tossed her out of their home, and was preparing for his lover to live with him.

A few days later, after the story had spread to numerous other sites, the site that had originally published the story retracted it, said they had been misled by a hoax, and issued a apology to Walker and his church.

For more details, go to:
http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/h/hezekiah-walker.htm
Or click SEARCH at the top of any page at TruthOrFiction.com and use HEZEKIAH as the search term.


Virus News for Mac owners!

The biggest virus story is about Apple/Macintosh computers.  That's right Macs!  Normally they are exempt from virus warnings.  The predominant number of computers are PC's so those are what the virus writers target.  But during February, a couple of viruses popped up for Macs.  They weren't at bad as some of the worst we've seen among PC's, but is it a trend?  

One is called Leap-A.  It also goes by the name of Oompa.  It's a Trojan that disguises itself as a jpeg image of an upcoming version of the Mac operating system.  It simply makes copies of itself and sends them to people on the user's iChat buddy list.   iChat is an instant messaging system for Apple users.   The other virus is being called OSX.Ingtana.A.  It tries to duplicate itself through Bluetooth wireless connections with other Apple computers.  Apple has issued a software security update that addresses the vulnerability that the virus exploits.  Experts say, however, that the virus does not appear to be destructive.


Blessings to each of you!   Help keep spreading Truth! on the Internet.