Flyby News
"News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era"
Media/Military/Tax Fiasco * Oneida Homeless * Ruppert Ad
24 May 2003 - Part II
3) Making Media Monopoly Part of the Constitution
4) Defending Our Environment and Health from the US Military- - Department of Defense Authorization bill
- - LFA: House & Senate Pass Versions of Military Exemptions
- - When DU Burns Through a Target
- - "Navy admits burning 600,000 gallons of radioactive fuel.."
- - Iraq War: "Unprovoked Invasion of A Sovereign Nation"
5) Tax Plan - Give to the Rich - Take from All
6) Oneida-Cassino's Battle on Human Rights- - Xcel nuclear storage
7) The Mouse that Roared - Ruppert Goes Public
Editor's NotesItem 3 begins some of the items we are confronting that makes the chances for survival in the 21st Century pretty dismal. June 2nd is the date that the media is reporting their expectations to pass laws to allow monopolies take over our air waves for ownership of broad band media. Will this happen? You will find some actions in this item to voice your response to these plans. Yet what may be worse could be the impact of the next item where the US military is trying to make legal exemptions for its harming our environment. This includes a new generation of nuclear weapons, low frequency active sonar, blowing dolphins and whales into a frenzy and killing them with powerful sound mechanisms. This item has ugly tales of an ignorant military program gone mad by following the lineage of fears with powerful weaponry and technologies that threatens all.
For complete editor's notes on these items, see part 1 of 24 May 2003 --
Kucinich rEvolution * Voter Confidence * Flyby Events
3) Making Media Monopoly Part of the ConstitutionThe FCC's Big Grab:
Making Media Monopoly Part of the Constitution
By Robert W. McChesney
As I write this, the Federal Communications Commission is poised to vote on June 2 to relax several longstanding media ownership rules. By nearly all accounts, it will lead to a wave of media mergers and market consolidation that is unprecedented in U.S. history. In my view, such moves would be a disaster for our society.
If you know about this and want to register your opposition, go to www.mediareform.net, where there are links to all the major campaigns to stop the FCC, along with links to news articles and
considerable background information on the topic. Public pressure can stop the FCC. The www.mediareform.net site also has a comprehensive index to all of the groups working on media reform issues in the United States, as well as a complete list of the issues these groups are working on.
If you want an overview of the current situation, and this complete article, see:
http://www.mediareform.net = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Note - from MoveOn.org
Remember: the American people own the airwaves, and broadcasters are supposed to use them to serve the public interest – not the interests of a handful of media moguls!
Click Here to Attend a Meeting in Your District:
http://meetings.commoncause.ctsg.comClick Here for the FCC Issue Center:
http://www.commoncause.org/action/fcc.htm= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
To send a free fax on this from TrueMajority.org, see:
http://www.truemajority.com/index.asp?action=10017&ms=fcc1&ref=54636
4) Defending Our Environment and Health from the US Military- - Department of Defense Authorization bill
- - LFA: House & Senate Pass Versions of Military Exemptions
- - "Navy admits burning 600,000 gallons of radioactive fuel.."
- - When DU Burns Through a Target
- - Iraq War: "Unprovoked Invasion of A Sovereign Nation"
Defending Our Environment and Health from the US Military
by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Published: Friday, May 16, 2003 by the Chicago Tribune
With our soldiers' brilliant victory in Iraq, we can take comfort that our military is the best-trained, best-equipped fighting force in the world. But the Pentagon is mounting a sneak attack against America's health and safety on the pretext that federal environmental rules have impeded military readiness. This year's defense authorization bill has proposed to exempt the military from laws that protect America's air, water and endangered species, that regulate toxic waste and the cleanup of Superfund sites.
The federal government is America's biggest polluter and the Department of Defense is the government's worst offender. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, unexploded ordnance waste can be found on 16,000 military ranges across the U.S. and more than half may contain biological or chemical weapons. In total, the Pentagon is responsible for more than 21,000 potentially contaminated sites and, according to the EPA, the military may have poisoned as much as 40 million acres, a little larger than Florida. That result might be considered an act of war if committed by a foreign power.
EPA documents describe a martial assault on America's landscapes and citizens by Pentagon officials who consistently violate federal and military laws with sloppy cleanups and poor or non-existent record keeping. The Pentagon also habitually refuses to obtain permits for prohibited activities. Recalcitrant officers charged with remedying the resulting mess generally decline to investigate off-site contamination and routinely take "ill-advised shortcuts to limit costs," said an EPA report.
The risks to those living on or near military installations can hardly be overstated. Twenty million Americans in 43 states are drinking water poisoned by perchlorate, a cancer-causing chemical used by the military in missile fuel, reports the Robert C. Byrd National Technology Transfer Center at Wheeling Jesuit University.
The experience at Cape Cod, Mass., is typical. Unregulated pollution at Massachusetts Military Reservation has contaminated the only drinking water aquifer for the Cape's 200,000 year-round residents and 520,000 summer visitors. Cancer rates there are dramatically higher than the state average. Malingering Pentagon officials have spent decades dodging the responsibility to clean up their mess. The defense authorization bill will let them off the hook altogether.
The Pentagon has not offered any evidence that federal environmental laws have hindered military preparedness. EPA Administrator Christie Whitman recently told Congress that she didn't "believe that there is a training mission anywhere in the county that is being held up or not taking place because of environmental protection regulation."
Moreover, the statutes now under fire already provide case-by-case exemptions whenever a national security interest is at stake. Even as it seeks to carve out huge new loopholes in our environmental laws, the Pentagon admits that it has never even tried to use the broad national security waivers it already has.
The Pentagon's proposal strips the EPA and states of their authority to protect public health by forcing the military facilities to clean up toxic contamination. Massive cleanup costs would fall on state governments and local communities--most of which are facing severe budget crises.
The Defense Department's arguments for new exemptions in our environmental laws do not pass muster. For example, Pentagon officials maintain that training exercises are banned on more than half of Camp Pendleton in California to protect endangered species habitat. In reality, wildlife protections limit training on less than 4 percent of that military base, according to Natural Resources Defense Council calculations. Pentagon officials also are trying to evade laws that protect marine life, claiming that they hamper the Navy's ability to conduct exercises at sea. While sonar testing and bombing can harm whales, dolphins and other marine mammals, federal wildlife officials have never denied the military a permit to conduct its operations.
President Bush campaigned on a promise to require federal agencies to fully comply with environmental standards and to hold agencies accountable for any violations. In other words, no government agency should be above the law. The president was absolutely right to make that pledge in April 2000, and he should stand by his words as commander in chief.
National defense does not have to come at the expense of the very values that the military is entrusted to defend.
Copyright © 2003, Chicago Tribune
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- - Department of Defense Authorization billFrom: Dawn Martin
Oceana.org
Fwd. by Planetary Rescue Corps
http://mutanex.comUrgent: Congress is Voting this Week!! Laws that help recover whales, bald eagles and other threatened wildlife are in the cross-hairs this week.
Have you have seen the recent news reports of the whales and dolphins being "blasted" by Navy sonar tests off the Washington coast? Many believe that some of the Armed Forces' activities are harming whales, dolphins and other ocean wildlife. If so, let your Congressman or Congresswoman know that the bill they will vote on will allow these tragic events to happen more frequently.
Please take a moment to call your U.S. Representative and urge them to fight any exemptions to the Marine Mammal Protection Act, Endangered Species Act, and other environmental laws in the "Department of Defense Authorization bill." Current environmental laws are balanced and fair. It is possible to protect the world's oceans and our nation's security at the same time.
If you have additional time, please take a moment to contact your U.S. Senators, Daniel Akaka and Daniel Inouye and encourage them to not accept any weakening of the Endangered Species Act or Marine Mammal Protection Act in their Defense authorization bill. They cast their votes on the bill this week. Please call the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121.
Let us know how your phone call went at wavemaker@oceana.org.
For more information about this issue, visit our website.
http://www.Oceana.org = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - LFA: House & Senate Pass Versions of Military ExemptionsThis following was received from Stop LFAS list serve:
[Low Frequency Active Sonar]
http://www.yahoogroups.com/group/stoplfas= = = = = = = = = =
Dear LFA Activists:
Well, the Senate and the House have now passed different versions of the National Defense Authorization Act, with different versions of the Pentagon's cherished exemptions from environmental laws. All in all, what passed was not good, but due to heroic efforts by environmental groups in DC and due to effective grassroots activism (take a bow, you all!), the line up looks pretty good for our side, compared to what the Pentagon and other Neanderthals in the Congress wanted...
House Version: Exempting Military from ESA and MMPA
The House version, which passed this evening (Thursday, May 22nd), is by far the worst bill. We will have to fight strongly to see that the upcoming Conference Committee, which will reconcile the House and Senate versions, drops the House version in favor of the Senate version.
Yesterday and today, the House acted to strip amendments placed in the bill by the reactionary majority of the House Resources Committee and its new Chairman, Dickie Pombo of Stockton, CA. Oddly enough, the author of the amendments to "fix" the Pombo mess was his fellow California Republican, Duncan Hunter of the San Diego area.
The Hunter amendment, which had to be passed on Wednesday and AGAIN on Thursday (because he missed stuff in his Wednesday amendment), restricts the ESA amendment to the military (so other federal land agencies cannot ignore the ESA, as allowed by Pombo & Gallegly), and the weakened "harassment" definition in the MMPA is also restricted to the military only. Hunter left in other bad items: The "small take" permit process, which is currently limited to small numbers of marine mammals in restricted geographic areas (and wildly violated by NMFS and the Navy in the MMPA permit given last fall for LFA Sonar) would be broadened for anyone, so there would no longer be a numerical or geographic limits to NMFS issuing a "small take" permit. Also, the provision proposed by the Pentagon to allow Secretary Rumsfeld and his successors (assuming he doesn't blow up the planet so that there WILL NOT BE successors) to exempt the military from the MMPA for any reason was also left in the House version.
Several important notes about the House fiasco:
(1) The House Rules Committee, controlled by the Republican fascists, refused to allow ANY amendments to the Defense Authorization Bill on the floor concerning environmental issues except for Rep. Hunter's amendments -- how's that for an open democracy??
(2) Rep. Hunter's carrying a clean-up amendment to rebuke fellow Republicans Pombo and Gallegly is fairly unique, especially among Republicans. In other words, even the fascist Republicans who lead the House realized they could not get away with the complete gutting of the ESA and MMPA for industry and other stooges in the name of "national security" and "military readiness" in a Defense Dept. funding bill. Opposition from the public led to a rare victory in Congress against extremism. Still, the overall bill sucks...
In a nutshell, the House version of the Defense Authorization Bill exempts military lands from consideration as Critical Habitat under the ESA and exempts the Navy and other military agencies from provision of the MMPA in several ways. It does not include other exemptions sought by the military for other environmental laws (Clean Air Act, Superfund law, etc.), nor does it expand the exemptions to other federal agencies and industries, as the House ResourcesCommittee leadership wanted.
Senate Version: Substitute for ESA Critical Habitat on Military Lands
The Senate passed their own version of the Defense Authorization Bill on Wednesday, leaving out everything except for the exemption of military lands from the Critical Habitat designations of the Endangered Species Act.This was somewhat modified for the better by Senator Lautenberg's amendment, pushed by most (but not all) environmentalists, which allows Sikes Act management plans to be substituted for Critical Habitat designations. Not a great fix, but the best that could be expected politically in these nasty times.
Republicans are very upset by the narrow passage (51 votes) of the Lautenberg amendment. Indeed, even ol' Secretary Rumsfeld himself went up to Capitol Hill to fume about it, according to the New York Times, calling the Senate approach a mistake and reiterated his view that the environmental laws were hindering training.
"To the extent we are so restricted that we are unable to train, we're going to end up sending men and women into battle without the training they need," he said, telling reporters that he will work to reverse the Senate action.
Next Steps: Conference Committee, Concurrence Votes, President
Both versions of this cursed bill now will go to a Conference Committee, which is expected to finalize a compromise version before July 4th. The Conference report would go for an up or down vote to the Senate and House floor (as the bill is needed to fund the military, don't expect many no votes). The plan is for Commandante Bushie to sign it on the 4th with flags, dancing girls, explosives, and other accouterments of patriotism (or "rotism" for short).
What Can We Do?
Well, plenty!
We will probably want to fight in Conference Committee (depending on whom will be appointed by the leadership) to make sure the least damage is done to our environmental laws. The bill could wind up deadlocked and dead for the year, although most observers believe the final bill will contain at least the ESA exemptions for the military. We probably won't know for a week or two as to who will be the members of the House/Senate Conference Committee..
..Finally, THANK YOU all out there in cyberland who have helped. We still have a bit further to go, but with your CONTINUED help, we will prevail!
Keep those pens sharpened, faxes online, and telephone lines burning brightly...
Yours for a real democracy someday....
Mark J. Palmer
Earth Island Institute
300 Broadway, Suite 28
San Francisco, CA 94133
(415) 788-3666 x139
(415) 788-7324 (fax)
< mpalmer@cal.net >
This report came via the Stop LFAS list serve:
http://www.yahoogroups.com/group/stoplfas= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - "Navy admits burning 600,000 gallons of radioactive fuel at S.F. shipyard"for this related article, see:
http://sfweekly.com/issues/2003-05-21/bayview.html/1/index.html= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - When DU Burns Through a TargetWhen it comes out of the barrel it is already on fire. When DU burns through a target, between 40 and 70 percent of every penetrator turns into fragments, smoke, and uranium oxide dust. The dust, with particles as small as one micron, settles out on the ground and, studies show, can be carried by the wind as far as 25 miles away. These tiny particles can stick to hair and skin, and get swallowed or inhaled, where they lodge permanently in lungs. Recent research suggests that DU's chemical toxicity damages the brain. It also emits alpha and beta radiation, which can damage lungs, kidneys, and other soft tissues, especially the digestive tract.
http://pnews.org/NWO/phpnuke/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=96= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Iraq War: "Unprovoked Invasion of A Sovereign Nation"West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd:
Iraq War, "Unprovoked Invasion of A Sovereign Nation"
Delivered on the floor of the U.S. Senate
Wednesday 21 May 2003
Truth has a way of asserting itself despite all attempts to obscure it. Distortion only serves to derail it for a time. No matter to what lengths we humans may go to obfuscate facts or delude our fellows, truth has a way of squeezing out through the cracks, eventually.
But the danger is that at some point it may no longer matter. The danger is that damage is done before the truth is widely realized. The reality is that, sometimes, it is easier to ignore uncomfortable facts and go along with whatever distortion is currently in vogue. We see a lot this today in politics. I see a lot of it - - more than I would ever have believed - - right on this Senate Floor.
Regarding the situation in Iraq, it appears to this Senator that the American people may have been lured into accepting the unprovoked invasion of a sovereign nation, in violation of long-standing International law, under false premises.
There is ample evidence that the horrific events of September 11 have been carefully manipulated to switch public focus from Osama Bin Laden and Al Queda who masterminded the September 11th attacks, to Saddam Hussein who did not. The run up to our invasion of Iraq featured the President and members of his cabinet invoking every frightening image they could conjure, from mushroom clouds, to buried caches of germ warfare, to drones poised to deliver germ laden death in our major cities. We were treated to a heavy dose of overstatement concerning Saddam Hussein and his direct threat to our freedoms. The tactic was guaranteed to provoke a sure reaction from a nation still suffering from a combination of post traumatic stress and justifiable anger after the attacks of 911. It was the exploitation of fear. It was a placebo for the anger.
For the complete transcript, see:
http://truthout.org/docs_03/052203B.shtml
5) Tax Plan - Give to the Rich - Take from AllCitizens for Tax Justice
What's New at CTJ
Friday, May 23, 2003
FINAL TAX PLAN TILTS EVEN MORE TOWARD RICHEST (REVISED)
A revised analysis of the tax cut plan approved by House and Senate negotiators last night shows that the plan offers the wealthiest one percent of Americans a $103,899 tax reduction over the next four years.
The analysis is available on CTJ's website at
http://www.ctj.org/pdf/sen0503.pdf- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
CENTER ON BUDGET AND POLICY
PRIORITIES
820 First Street, NE,
Suite 510
Washington, DC 20002
Tel: 202-408-1080
Fax: 202-408-1056
center@cbpp.org
http://www.cbpp.orgRevised May 22, 2003
CONFERENCE AGREEMENT ON TAX CUTS MAKES HEAVIER USE OF GIMMICKS THAN HOUSE OR SENATE BILLS
Nearly Every Provision in Bill Has Artificial Expiration Date, With True Cost Likely to be $800 Billion or More
by Robert Greenstein, Richard
Kogan, and Joel Friedman
The tax-cut package tentatively agreed to by the White House and House and Senate Republican leaders carries an "official" cost of $350 billion through 2013, but does so only through massive use of budget gimmicks.[1]
For the full report, and a downloadable and printable PDF version, click on:
http://tinyurl.com/cgzp
6) Oneida-Cassino's Battle on Human Rights- - Xcel nuclear storage
URGENT FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
US Citizen asks UN for Asylum from US Govt
MAY 21, 2003: United Nations Headquarters 1st & 44th Street in New York, NY, scheduled press conference on front steps of United Nations Headquarters May 22, 2003 at 11AM est
A Citizen of the Haudenosaunee, the Six Nation Iroquois Confederacy, Exposes Federal State & Local Government in Criminal & Civil rights violations presently occurring in central NY State and asks the United Nations to give her asylum from the United States government and those placed in control of her Oneida Indian Nation by the US Government
Video Footage and Documentation back the allegations of Danielle Shenandoah-Patterson, a member of the Onyota'a;ka (Standing Stone People) who has been made homeless and a refugee from her sovereign Oneida Indian Territory by those placed into power and supported by the US Government.
Ms. Shenandoah-Patterson states: "I came to United Nations Permanent Forum of Indigenous People to join other indigenous people also seeking protection from and assistance against US policies furthering the demise of the cultural existence and sovereignty of the Native People. I and other families of the Oneida Indian Territory have suffered and are facing further oppressive abuse of civil and human rights including arbitrary arrest, imprisonment and demolition of our privately purchased and owned homes, all as punishment for speaking out against those placed into power by the US. Those in control of the Oneida Indian Nation were put there by the US because they would continue the cultural genocide and sell our people into slavery called "casinos" in order to become income tax generators for the State budget rather than taxing wealthy non-Indians. They are selling the heritage and lands of my children for a 'treaty' called a 'gambling compact' and a share of casino profits. The BIA has unclean hands in this."
Because of US Policies towards indigenous people, Shenandoah-Patterson has asked the UN for political asylum because the US does not protect the indigenous people within its own borders from religious persecution, especially when done by those placed into power by the US government.
Shenandoah-Patterson continues: "The Oneida Indian Nation of New York is in all actuality a "Casino Cartel" disguised as an 'Indian' Nation. The 'People of the Turning Stone' do NOT represent the Traditional Haudenosaunee People of the Standing Stone. The Turning Stone People have turned their backs on ALL Traditional values and beliefs. What we have here is a modern day Hitler who has locked our Long House (our sacred spiritual building); banished our ceremonies; demolishing our private homes and made Traditional Iroquois families refugees form their own homeland and forced us to become wards of the State of New York."
Shenandoah-Patterson also represents the United Native Nations Truth Network and Voice Confederation and Onyota'a;ka Indian Territory Community. She also charges that the BIA and US violated the sovereignty of the Oneida Indian Nation, and the Treaties of the Haudenosaunee with the US by rejecting the decision of the Traditional Haudenosaunee leaders and supporting a self appointed leader who created a whole new form of government not based on any traditions.
For more information contact:
Diane Shenandoah
315-363-6248
P.O. Box 555
5 Territory Road
Oneida, New York
http://www.oneidasfordemocracy.org= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Xcel nuclear storageXcel nuclear storage plan gets boost in Minnesota
USA: May 19, 2003
SAN FRANCISCO - Xcel Energy Inc's (XEL.N) bid to store more radioactive waste at its Prairie Island nuclear power station in Minnesota got a lift from an Indian tribe that lives near the plant.
For the complete Reuters News Service article, see:
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/20825/story.htm
7) The Mouse that Roared - Ruppert Goes PublicMay 16, 2003, 0500 PDT (FTW) –
The Wilderness today ran a full-page ad in the front section of The Washington Post intended to educate the American people, support heroic leaders and promote a number of independent media outlets which have made important contributions since 9/11. The ad was the direct result of a donation from a subscriber who had recently viewed FTW Publisher Mike Ruppert's video "The Truth and Lies of 9-11".
To see advertisement and story, see:
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/051603_wash_post_ad.htmlRuppert's ad agency has put together an amazing ad buy, the Top 12 newspapers (readership wise) in the United States:
Atlanta Journal Constitution
Boston Globe
Chicago Tribune
Dallas Morning News
Los Angeles Times
Miami Herald
New York Times
Philadelphia Inquirer
San Francisco Chronicle
Seattle Times
Minneapolis Tribune
Arizona Republic
Together, the readership of these newspapers is between 25-40 Million people!
If someone purchased these full-page ads individually in these newspapers it would cost well over $500,000. They got a price of just $100,000 for all 12 cities! This is our time. This is our chance to reach and influence many, many millions of Americans (and readers world-wide)...and to wake them up!
Donations can be set to be used EXCLUSIVELY to buy ad space.
They have less than 30 days left to raise $100,000 to buy the ad space. This is completely possible! The Mouse That Roared...will make a difference. If you want to be part of this.
Make checks payable to: More Than News Productions - memo: FTW AD
Send to:
From The Wilderness
Ad Donation
PO Box 6061-350
Sherman Oaks, CA 91413
You can also donate online at:
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/FTW_Ad.htmlNote: Credit cards can be used to make donations but once the ad buys are placed, no refunds can be given.
For more information visit
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/cgi-bin/MasterPFP.cgi?doc=http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/052103_roaring_mouse.html= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For another comprehensive minute by minute Timeline On 911, see:
http://911Timeline.net= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
For Flyby News' updated resource page on, see::
The Bush Conspiracy and 9/11 Investigative Reports
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====> = = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =