Flyby News
"News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era"
Resource Wars * Nuke Vibes * Pentagon Flicks
10 March 2006
"We have no desire to dominate, no ambitions of empire."
"Free nations don't attack.
Free nations don't develop weapons of mass destruction."
-- George W. Bush
Both above quotes, prior to the US unprovoked invasion of Iraq
"I just want you to know that, when we talk about war,
we're really talking about peace."
-- George W. Bush
"If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it,
people will become accustomed to believing it."
- Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels
"See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things
over and over and over again for the truth to sink in,
to kind of catapult the propaganda."
- George W. Bush1) Resource Wars Here and Now- - Congress Can Stop the US-India Nuclear Proliferation Agreement
- - The Proposed Iranian Oil Bourse
- - The Chairman of the Senate Cover-Up Committee
- - Bush signs renewal of Patriot Act
- - Feingold Makes an Iowa Move
- - Instant-Runoff Voting is Gaining Momentum as Problem Solver
2) Feds put Vermont Yankee uprate on hold due to excess vibration- - Citizens Awareness Network (CAN) - calendar
- - Nuclear Waste: Bury It and Forget?
- - Major Crude Oil Spill Near Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
3) Scholars Call for Release of 9/11 Information- - Warning: Are Scholars for 9-11 Truth Being Sabotaged?
- - 9/11 and other Video Resources on the Web
4) "The Book That Changed My Life" - Malik Abdullah Akili"Let us never tolerate outrageous conspiracy theories
concerning the attacks of September the 11th;
malicious lies that attempt to shift the blame away
from the terrorists, themselves, away from the guilty."
-- George W. Bush
43rd US President,
Yale Skull & Bones Society
Stated at the United Nations,
November 11, 2001Editor's Notes:First of the items of today's FN is on Resource Wars. In the thick of this mess is a new push for nuclear proliferation with the Bush-India nuke deal, and the hypocrisy of the US rhetoric against Iran. This item has other related news regarding the Patriot Act, which has been used to arrest Richard Sitcha and others for no crime committed. This item also updates on Russ Feingold and his efforts and campaign for regime change in the US; and on the growing momentum for Instant Runoff Voting.
Item two is about the nuclear power industry being on shaky ground in its plans to extend the life and increase the output of old brittle nuclear power plants. [For those wanting FN email alerts regarding central New England area, you can receive them by sending an email to
flyby(at)mtdata.com and write "subscribe" in subject field.] Also in this item is breaking news on a major crude oil spill near the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Updated at FlybyNews.com is on the development of a 1-megawatt low temperature Stirling power system to convert excess process heat and steam energy at industrial plants to "pollution-free" electricity. To learn more, click =>
"A Practical Stirling" Solution for Onsite Power Production.
Item 3 is on a petition calling for the release of US-confiscated film that would likely expose what hit the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. Plus links for film resources.. Please consider supporting re-opening 9/11 investigations. This coming 5th anniversary on Sept. 11 can help reveal the cover-up and the deceit that has turned Iraq into chaos, and a recruiting ground for terrorism. The last item is an article from my friend in prison, which took second place in a writing contest called: "The Book That Changed My Life."
Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that really matter.
-- Martin Luther King, Jr.
1) Resource Wars Here and Now- - Congress Can Stop the US-India Nuclear Proliferation Agreement
- - The Proposed Iranian Oil Bourse
- - The Chairman of the Senate Cover-Up Committee
- - Bush signs renewal of Patriot Act
- - Feingold Makes an Iowa Move
- - Instant-Runoff Voting is Gaining Momentum as Problem Solver
The Coming Resource Wars
By Michael T. Klare
March 07, 2006
[EXCERPT]
Michael T. Klare is a professor of peace and world security studies at Hampshire College and the author of Resource Wars and Blood and Oil, both available in paperback from Owl Books.It's official: the era of resource wars is upon us. In a major London address, British Defense Secretary John Reid warned that global climate change and dwindling natural resources are combining to increase the likelihood of violent conflict over land, water and energy. Climate change, he indicated, "will make scarce resources, clean water, viable agricultural land even scarcer" and this will "make the emergence of violent conflict more rather than less likely."
This shift is due in part to the growing weight of evidence pointing to a significant human role in altering the planet's basic climate systems. Recent studies showing the rapid shrinkage of the polar ice caps, the accelerated melting of North American glaciers, the increased frequency of severe hurricanes and a number of other such effects all suggest that dramatic and potentially harmful changes to the global climate have begun to occur. More importantly, they conclude that human behavior, "most importantly, the burning of fossil fuels in factories, power plants, and motor vehicles" is the most likely cause of these changes. This assessment may not have yet penetrated the White House and other bastions of head-in-the-sand thinking, but it is clearly gaining ground among scientists and thoughtful analysts around the world.
For the most part, public discussion of global climate change has tended to describe its effects as an environmental problem, "as a threat to safe water, arable soil, temperate forests, certain species and so on. And, of course, climate change is a potent threat to the environment; in fact, the greatest threat imaginable. But viewing climate change as an environmental problem fails to do justice to the magnitude of the peril it poses. As Reid's speech and the 2003 Pentagon study make clear, the greatest danger posed by global climate change is not the degradation of ecosystems per se, but rather the disintegration of entire human societies, producing wholesale starvation, mass migrations and recurring conflict over resources.
..In this world of warring states, the 2003 Pentagon report predicted, "nuclear arms proliferation is inevitable." As oil and natural gas disappears, more and more countries will rely on nuclear power to meet their energy needs and this will accelerate nuclear proliferation as countries develop enrichment and reprocessing capabilities to ensure their national security.
Military superiority may provide an illusion of advantage in the coming struggles over vital resources, but it cannot protect us against the ravages of global climate change..
For the complete article, see:
www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/03/07/the_coming_resource_wars.php= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Congress Can Stop the US-India Nuclear Proliferation AgreementThe following is from: Friends Committee on National Legislation
http://www.fcnl.orgphone: (202)547-6000 * toll-free: (800)630-1330
When President Bush arrived in New Delhi last week, India had the capacity to produce 6 to 10 nuclear weapons per year. When he departed after reaching a tentative nuclear deal with India that South East Asian nation will potentially be able to produce nearly 50 nuclear weapons per year.
Before the new U.S.-India nuclear agreement is implemented, however, Congress will have to approve changes to existing legislation that would weaken several nonproliferation laws. This deal would undermine years of work by the U.S. to strengthen the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the international agreement endorsed by 188 nations that bans the export of nuclear technology to countries that don't agree to international inspections of their nuclear programs.
India has refused to sign the NPT and has conducted tests of a nuclear weapon as recently as 1998. Nonetheless, the Bush administration wants to provide India with nuclear technology and fuel. In exchange, India has agreed to international inspections for 14 of its 22 nuclear reactors. This proposal undermines the NPT by tacitly encouraging other countries to make bilateral nuclear agreements with non-NPT members in violation of a basic principle of that agreement.
The proposed U.S.-India agreement could also deteriorate relatively stable relations between India and Pakistan if the latter perceives this agreement to be an aggressive move. What would stop Pakistan from reaching a similar agreement with China? Furthermore, even while the U.S. is criticizing Iran (an NPT member) for developing its nuclear technology, the U.S. is simultaneously creating a double standard by offering India (a non-NPT member) similar nuclear technology. The US loses a lot from this nuclear agreement with India and gains very little.
*Congress Can Block This Deal*
The verbal nuclear cooperation agreement that President Bush negotiated with Indian Prime Minister Singh last week is far from a done deal. Congress will soon begin debating legislation to implement the U.S.-India nuclear agreement.
Please let your representative know that you care about reducing the nuclear danger and that you oppose the US-India nuclear deal. To see reasons and talking points visit:
www.fcnl.org/redir/1506india/Rep. Ed Markey (MA), a leading critic of the deal, recently quipped, "You can't preach temperance from a barstool."
If you have not done so, please encourage your representative to cosponsor H.Con.Res. 318 (
www.fcnl.org/redir/1606hconres318/ ), a bipartisan resolution expressing concern about the proposed nuclear plan. See an updated list of cosponsors:
www.fcnl.org/redir/1706cosponsors/Some congressional offices have not heard from their constituents on this issue, so many may think that the public does not care about or understand this issue. Your emails and calls to your representative are key, especially if he or she is on the House International Relations Committee. Find out if your representative is on this committee at
www.fcnl.org/redir/1806houseir/Read FCNL's Legislative Action Message on the U.S.-India nuclear deal from two weeks ago:
www.fcnl.org//redir/1906indialam/.For updated information about the U.S.-India nuclear deal,
please visit:
www.fcnl.org/redir/2006nuclear/= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - The Proposed Iranian Oil BoursePublished on 18 Jan 2006 by Energy Bulletin
The Proposed Iranian Oil Bourse
by Krassimir Petrov
Economics of Empires
www.energybulletin.net/12125.html= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - The Chairman of the Senate Cover-Up CommitteeThe Progress Report -
www.progressreport.orgby Judd Legum, Faiz Shakir, Nico Pitney
Amanda Terkel and Payson Schwin
3/9/06
INTELLIGENCE
The Chairman of the Senate Cover-Up Committee
Earlier this week, the Senate Intelligence Committee, chaired by Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS), voted along partisan lines to avoid a clash with President Bush over his domestic spying program. The New York Times writes that the intelligence committee has become "so paralyzingly partisan that it could not even manage to do its basic job this week." By voting down a sensible proposal offered by Sen. John Rockefeller (D-WV) to comprehensively review the spying program, Roberts failed once again to demonstrate he has the leadership to conduct the required oversight of the Bush administration. As Rockefeller said, "This committee is basically under control of the White House." It was "no surprise that Mr. Roberts led this retreat;" he has been doing the "president's dirty work" repeatedly over the past few years in his efforts to stonewall investigations into important national security matters.
The Progress Report has compiled a comprehensive report detailing how Roberts and his Senate Cover-Up Committee have obstructed investigations into the Bush administration's use of pre-war Iraq intelligence, the administration's complicity in acts of torture against detainees, and the White House's outing of a former CIA agent, among other issues.
For the complete American Progress Report, see:
www.americanprogressaction.org/site/apps/s/custom.asp?c=klLWJcP7H&b=598395= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Bush signs renewal of Patriot Act09 Mar 2006
After a long battle with Congress that went down to the wire,
Bush signed a renewal of the USA Patriot Act on Thursday,
a day before 16 major provisions of the old law expire.
For article, see:
www.suntimes.com/output/news/patriotact09.htmlIn the Senate, only these 10 voted against the act:
Daniel Akaka (D-HI), Tom Harkin (D-IA), Carl Levin (D-MI), Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Ron Wyden (D-OR), James Jeffords (I-VT), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Patty Murray (D-WA), Russ Feingold (D-WI), Robert Byrd (D-WV).
The rest voted with Bush and against freedom.
= = = = = = == = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Feingold Makes an Iowa Moveby Chris Cillizza | March 8, 2006
[EXCERPT]
Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) has recruited veteran party operative Paul Tewes to help him begin the long process of courting Iowa voters.
Feingold is beloved by many on the party's ideological left for his lonely opposition to the Patriot Act and his 2002 vote against the Iraq war. He is hoping to tap into the fundraising and organizational energy that former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean used to catapult himself from obscurity to the top of the 2004 presidential field.
For complete article, see:
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/thefix/2006/03/feingold_makes_an_iowa_move.html= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Instant-Runoff Voting is Gaining Momentum as Problem SolverPublished on Sunday, March 5, 2006 by the Associated Press
It eliminates need for runoff election, cuts 'spoiler' effect
by Ross Sneyd
www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0305-02.htm
2) Feds put Vermont Yankee uprate on hold due to excess vibration- - Citizens Awareness Network (CAN) - calendar
- - Nuclear Waste: Bury It and Forget?
- - Major Crude Oil Spill Near Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
Feds put Vermont Yankee uprate on hold due to excess vibration
By Kathryn Casa | Vermont Guardian
posted March 7, 2006
[EXCERPT]
BRATTLEBORO Federal regulators have frozen the Vermont Yankee power increase at 105 percent after a measurement on Saturday recorded vibrations that exceeded acceptable levels, the Vermont Guardian has learned.
The NRC last week issued approval to allow Vermont Yankee to increase power to 120 percent of its design capacity under close scrutiny because of concerns about the plant s steam dryer, the component that removes water droplets from the steam before it feeds into the turbines.
The conditions require VY operators to increase power in increments of 5 percent and hold each increase for 96 hours after the vibration and stress measurements are sent to regulators.
An inspection of the VY dryer in November revealed more than 40 hairline cracks. VY officials said the fissures were probably old, and were detected with sophisticated magnification equipment first used during the most recent refueling outage to check 20 cracks found in the dryer in 2004.
Although the steam dryer is considered a non-safety component, experts say breakage could compromise the reactor s safety systems if, for example, a piece of the cracked dryer were to break off and lodge in a valve.
Cracks discovered late last year in the welded reinforcements of the Dresden II reactor s steam dryer in Illinois, which is similar to Vermont Yankee, also raised concerns at the NRC about the stability of the devices.
Dresden II, a boiling water reactor like Vermont Yankee, was shut down for a refueling outage when inspectors discovered fissures in six triangular stainless steel gussets that had been welded onto the plant s cracked steam dryer in an effort to reinforce it.
"To NRC s credit they re saying let s take a look at this," said Ray Shadis, technical advisor to the anti-nuclear group New England Coalition. "But what we anticipate is that they will once again sharpen their pencils, do some calculations and figure out that maybe they can run a little bit longer."
Last week Shadis said he didn't expect VY to exhibit problems at 105 percent because operators last year told the NRC that they had already run the plant above 100 percent.
"If they have excessive vibrations or strain at 105 percent and the executives from VY have already admitted that they routinely run flow rates in excess of 100 percent, I have some concern that they should permit the reactor to run at all," Shadis added.
Vermont Yankee officials did not return phone calls at press time.
For article, see:
www.vermontguardian.com/local/032006/VYUprateStalls.shtml= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Citizens Awareness Network (CAN) - calendarASK Entergy Yourself!!
March 13, 2006
Pioneer Valley Regional School
Northfield, MA
7:00 p.m.
Come ask Entergy yourself what matters to you!!
Open to the Public
- - - - - - - - -
CAN Meeting
March 16, 2006
Brooks Library Meeting Room
Brattleboro, VT
4:00-6:00 p.m.
Learn what CAN is up to and how you might get involved. We currently have ongoing efforts to shutdown the Vermont Yankee nuclear reactor (just over the border in Vernon, VT). There is much going on! Broader public involvement is essential!
March 19, 2006
CAN Campaign Strategy Session
Greenfield Market - upstairs meeting room
10:00- 5:00pm
For more information, visit
nukebusters.org= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Nuclear Waste: Bury It and Forget?Published on Thursday, March 9, 2006 by Reuters
Nuclear Waste: Bury It and Forget?
by Jeremy Lovell
www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0309-01.htm= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Major Crude Oil Spill Near Arctic National Wildlife RefugeDRILLING CAUSES MAJOR CRUDE OIL SPILL
NEAR ARCTIC NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE
Potentially Largest In Alaska North Slope History
..On Thursday, March 2, a BP oil operator discovered signs of an oil spill at a caribou migration site on the snow-covered tundra of Alaska's North Slope. Three days later, response workers finally uncovered the source of the spill - a breach in an oil transit pipeline feeding into the larger trans-Alaska oil pipeline infrastructure stretching some 800 miles across the state.
Clean-up crews have already vacuumed up more than 50,000 gallons of crude oil and melted snow off the delicate tundra, but at least one report from an industry expert has indicated that up to 798,000 gallons could be unaccounted for, possibly making this the largest crude oil spill in the history of the North Slope, and second in Alaska only to the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. Oil is still dripping from the breached pipeline and the full extent of the damage and affected acreage are unknown. The multi-agency spill response team will attempt to come up with an estimated spill volume in the next two days.
For the complete press release article, see:
www.sierraclub.org/pressroom/releases/pr2006-03-07.asp
3) Scholars Call for Release of 9/11 Information- - Warning: Are Scholars for 9-11 Truth Being Sabotaged?
- - 9/11 and other Video Resources on the Web
PETITION - Scholars Call for Release of 9/11 Information
Please take a moment to sign this petition at the web site of
Scholars for 9-11 Truth. Its purpose is to obtain the release by the government of pertinent 9-11 evidence such as Pentagon surveillance video and tapes seized by the FBI from businesses nearby the Pentagon immediately following the strike. The goal is to obtain at least l0,000 signatures. It only takes a couple of minutes to sign the petition, and if you like, you can remain anonymous, insofar as your name being displayed publicly on their Web page.
While I don't normally have any faith in the effectiveness of petitions, I strongly urge you to take two minutes of your life to sign this one. I have signed it and I urge you to do the same and pass it around to all the forums you frequent, as well as share it with those on your email lists.
www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/929981172= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Warning: Are Scholars for 9-11 Truth Being Sabotaged?by Victor Thorn & Lisa Guliani
www.wingtv.net/thorn2006/noplaners.html= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - 9/11 and other Video Resources on the WebLoose Change 2nd Edition - Google Video VIDEO:
America - From Freedom To Fascism This site has a lot of great videos
www.question911.com/links.phpVIDEO -
Bush Successful at Permanent Legalization of TortureVIDEO -
NSA Whistleblower Alleges Widespread Domestic SpyingCynthia Mckinney Grills Rumsfeld over missing Pentagon TrillionsFor more on film-discussion forums, see:
Films that Make a Difference!For article archives, see:
Bush Conspiracy and 9/11 Investigative Reports,
looking into the unanswered questions.
4) "The Book That Changed My Life" - Malik Abdullah AkiliFrom Collins, NY Correctional Facility - General Library Service
Certificate for Second Place to Malik Abdullah Akili; 94A5238
For "The Book That Changed My Life" Writing Contest (December, 2005)
The Book That Changed My Life
By Malik Abdullah Akili.
I am an Afrikan male, born on April 5, 1940 and raised in a community commonly known as "Hells Kitchen" in New York City. As a child of the 40's and 50's, I would come to know "racism" in every facet of its virulence. Without a doubt the sickness of such abject bigotry would be sorely stamped upon my body and soul and it's destructiveness would follow me long into adulthood.
One clear example of one such devastating experience was delivered to me in the hallowed halls of the Catholic School my mother sent me to. The nun's [who were our teachers] presented all of us fledgling readers with two books to read from in the earliest grades. Those books were Little Black Sambo and the Black tar Baby story from Brier Rabbit. As the only Afrikan child in the class, the white students thought it was hilarious to mimic the book to poke fun at me, which humiliated me and made me feel ashamed. And the teacher never interceded to stop them from doing so. Although I couldn't have articulated it at the time, I was drowning in such a profound sense of shame that it overwhelmed me and affected my very soul.
As a result of this ongoing experience, [The nun's/teachers kept those two books on the reading list for the next few years], I found myself totally withdrawn from the educational process. I shut down. I tuned out. In the mind of the child that I was, I pushed away the only thing that I have power over - I subconsciously reasoned that if reading was so painful, I just wouldn't do it!
Before long the damage of "racism" would be compounded by my inability to read, bringing me deeper and deeper into a world of pain and shame. At that time I was unable to understand where the hurt was coming from, I only know that it was worse than anything I ever experienced before and that I didn't know how to make it go away. I remained functionally illiterate until I came to prison, where I would ultimately find and read the book that changed my life.
Once I learned how to read, I couldn't get enough books to satiate my hunger to learn. And the books that I tended to read became outlets for the pent up rage I still carried within me. I read Jack London's raw, naked wild and free military novels and dreamed of smashing my enemies, overwhelming, vanquishing and crushing them completely so I could sink my fangs into the hunters neck and never, never let go.
In time my reading habits matured as I did and before long I moved on to a higher for of literary work and I began reading all of Rafael Sabatine's books. And it was his book, particularly the "Lion's Skin" that touched me to my very core. The essence of this book was centered upon a hunter who sold the lion's skin while the beast still lived within it. In turn, the lion killed that man- as he continued to hurt him. This story fascinated me. It made me smile to consider that even under the lash, the hunted bested the hunter and killed his oppressor.
At the time, the representation of ultimate equality expressed in this book hovered just above my consciousness. And I found myself more able to define myself more constructively. However, it would take several more years for me to truly understand the underlying essence of this book and then learn how to isolate my real enemy, still mired in my early pain and shame, within me. And in the transformation of my thinking, I came to realize that I was my own worst enemy and that if I was going to change my life, I had to kill the enemy within myself first! The book still inspires me to dig deep inside of me, confront those things that I have taken for granted concerning myself and push myself forward towards even more positive change.
Considering the impact that the "Lion's Skin" had upon me, it is no wonder that I consider it the "Book that Changed my Life"!
For more on this and related issues, see:
My Friend in Jail - Malik Abdullah Akili
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