ENN Environmental News Network
E-mail Edition 03/19/2004

Donkey wars and the Green Revolution
Since the agricultural boom which began in the 1950s, world food production has tripled. All hail the tractor.
http://www.enn.com/news/2004-03-19/s_13917.asp

Fresh studies support new mass extinction theory
Fears that Earth is undergoing a mass species wipe-out similar to that which destroyed the dinosaurs 65 million years ago gained new ground Thursday with the publication of two British studies.
http://www.enn.com/news/2004-03-19/s_14176.asp

Site that prompted creation of Superfund is now clean, EPA says
Cleanup work at a former chemical dump that gave rise to the Superfund list has been completed, more than two decades after the environmental disaster forced the evacuation of an entire neighborhood, federal officials said.
http://www.enn.com/news/2004-03-19/s_14185.asp

U.N. watchdog and U.S. want to clean up atomic 'mess'
The head of the U.N. atomic watchdog said Thursday the United States would help it clean up all the weapons-grade nuclear material spread across the globe to keep it from from being used in bombs.
http://www.enn.com/news/2004-03-19/s_14175.asp

U.S. justice Scalia refuses to recuse in Cheney case
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia refused to remove himself from a case about Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force Thursday and said his impartiality could not be questioned despite their recent duck-hunting trip.
http://www.enn.com/news/2004-03-19/s_14178.asp

Chip industry to probe cancer rates of workers
The U.S. semiconductor industry, facing allegations that its members knowingly exposed workers to dangerous chemicals, will investigate the cancer rates of chip industry employees, its trade group said Thursday.
http://www.enn.com/news/2004-03-19/s_14174.asp

New Mexico grasslands become battleground in debate over drilling on public property
An oil man gazes out over the vast New Mexico grasslands known as Otero Mesa and envisions a pipeline linking wells that produce clean-burning natural gas and keep fuel prices down.
http://www.enn.com/news/2004-03-19/s_14184.asp

Fighting the auto industry for low-emission cars
Which environmentalists do the auto companies fear most? Is it Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) clean air regulators? Congressional fuel economy watchdogs?
http://www.enn.com/news/2004-03-19/s_12991.asp

Report criticizes Army Corps of Engineers
A new report says an irrigation effort in Arkansas and a flood-control pump in Mississippi are among 29 wasteful projects of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The report by the National Wildlife Federation and Taxpayers for Common Sense also singles out projects to deepen the Columbia River and transport salmon around four Snake River dams in the Pacific Northwest.
http://www.enn.com/news/2004-03-19/s_14180.asp

Romanian river is polluted with cyanide
Romania's Environment Ministry said on Thursday that toxic waste containing cyanide had spilled into a river in the northeast of the country and could pose health hazards and kill fish.
http://www.enn.com/news/2004-03-19/s_14171.asp



Environmental Marketplace Updates (Become a Member)

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Endangered Species Chocolate Company, a company created in an effort to raise environmental and social awareness. Using premium, all natural and organic chocolate as a medium for their message, the ESCC hopes to effect change in commerce and instill a sense of responsibility in consumers and the corporate world as well. Learn more about the Endangered Species Chocolate Company

G.A.P. Adventures, an exciting travel company that was born with a vision of travelling while respecting the land and her people. While others focus on attractions and creating a western environment, their vision is face-to-face travel at a grassroots level. Learn more about G.A.P. Adventures

ShoreBank Pacific, the first commercial bank in the United States with a commitment to environmentally-sustainable community development. Learn more about ShoreBank Pacific

University of California Press is the nonprofit publishing arm of the University of California. They publish and distribute a full spectrum of distinguished works. One such work is the recent photography book published by Sierra Club Books, "Urban Forest--Images of Trees in the Human Landscape" by David Paul Bayles. Learn more about UC Press/Sierra Club Books.

Worldwise, a leading supplier and brand of environmentally responsible consumer products that are changing the way Americans feel about the look, feel, price and performance of earth-friendly products. Worldwise is guided by the principle of sustainability--a step beyond conservation that maintains the planet's natural functions, resources and beauty. Learn more about Worldwise








Today's Press Releases (Become an Affiliate)
Direct from non-profit environmental and educational organizations.

American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy:
ACEEE Applauds Acceptance of SEER 13 Air Conditioner Standard

Natural Resources Defense Council:
Transportation Bill Could Promote Inactivity, Intensify Obesity Epidemic

California Certified Organic Farmers:
Worldwide Methyl Bromide Phase Out to be Addressed at March Meeting in Montreal

Pew Fellows Program in Marine Conservation:
Pew Fellow Julia Horrocks to Expand Sea Turtle Conservation in Barbados

Pew Fellows Program in Marine Conservation:
Pew Fellow Claudio Campagna to Foster 'Sea & Sky Park' in Patagonia

Pew Fellows Program in Marine Conservation:
Pew Fellow Mark Erdmann to Educate Indonesians About World's Largest Coral Reefs

World Resources Institute:
Carbon Trading Comes Online

United Nations Environment Programme:
Republic of Korea to Host Asia's First Global Ministerial Environment Forum

Rainforest Action Network:
US Wood Importers Pillage Virgin Indonesian Rainforests
- posted by Daniel @ 5:19 AM

 
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Great Lakes News: 19 March 2004
A collaborative project of the Great Lakes Information Network and the Great
Lakes Radio Consortium.

For links to these stories and more, visit http://www.great-lakes.net/news/

G-P, NCR to fund Fox River cleanup blueprint
----------------------------------------
Two paper companies have agreed to do the design and engineering work
required to begin cleaning harmful PCBs from the most polluted stretch of
the Fox River. Source: Green Bay Press-Gazette (3/19)


Ohio puts priority on keeping Asian carp out of Lake Erie
----------------------------------------
Ohio wildlife leaders say there is little that can be done to stop the carp
from moving up the Ohio River, so their focus is keeping it out of the Great
Lakes and protecting Lake Erie's $1 billion sport fishing industry. Source:
Newsday (3/19)


Army Corps' Great Lakes priorities under scrutiny
----------------------------------------
A U.S. Army Corps of Engineers study to explore the cost of maintaining and
expanding the St. Lawrence Seaway could result in an "ecological disaster"
in the Great Lakes, a new report charges. Source: Booth Newspapers (3/19)


Must expand existing nuclear-power base: report
----------------------------------------
Ontario will likely need five more nuclear plants, costing about $15-billion
in total, just to meet the power-supply shortage expected in the next few
years, according to a task-force report and industry figures. Source: The
Globe and Mail (3/19)


Permits could stall mine plan
----------------------------------------
Because of its proposed location along Lake Superior, near several national
forests, and the Reserve Mining Co. tailings controversy in the 1970s,
permitting for a taconite processing plant is tough in northeastern
Minnesota. Source: Duluth News Tribune (3/19)


New invader may infest Great Lakes
----------------------------------------
Scientists worry a small crustacean that's spreading in Europe and killing
off other aquatic species could hitch a ride in ballast water to the Great
Lakes and mess with the food chain here. Source: The Windsor Star (3/18)


Muskegon delegation finds ferry anticipation low in Milwaukee
----------------------------------------
A group of Muskegon community leaders on a goodwill tour of this Lake
Michigan city quickly concluded that the new cross-lake ferry service is a
bigger deal back home than it is in the "city of festivals." Source:
Muskegon Chronicle (3/18)


Board backs ship museum talks
----------------------------------------
Navy veterans proposing to anchor a World War II cruiser on Lake Michigan
downtown received a boost Thursday from the Milwaukee County Board. Source:
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (3/18)


Icebreakers to open Rock Cut passage
----------------------------------------
Icebreakers slugged their way upstream through one of the more difficult
winter channels on the St. Mary's River this week as preparations continue
for next week's shipping opener. Source: The Sault Ste. Marie Evening News
(3/17)

For links to these stories and more, visit http://www.great-lakes.net/news/

Did you miss a day of Daily News? Remember to use our searchable story
archive at http://www.great-lakes.net/news/inthenews.html


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- posted by Daniel @ 5:11 AM

 

Saturday,20 , March, 2004 (29, Muharram,1425 )

A Voice for Sanity and Moderation in US Politics
Dr. Michael Saba, Special to Arab News


WASHINGTON, 20March 2004 — Dennis Kucinich is not a familiar name to most Americans. He has only a few confirmed delegates in his race for the Democratic presidential nomination. And, although the Ohio congressman’s chances of winning are almost nil, his calls for peace have prompted many Americans, particularly Muslim-Americans, to back him as their candidate of choice. Recently, as part of his presidential campaign, Kucinich addressed a mostly Muslim group of about300 would-be supporters at the Knights of Columbus Hall in San Antonio, Texas. He stated, “We should be united in love; that’s the sense of community. We are experiencing this oneness here — a civic openness, an aspiration for peace, an aspiration for security.”

“My campaign is about more than winning office,” he said in his largely unscripted speech. “We backed ourselves into a corner and the rest of the world looks at us with curiosity. Once again we need to be united to create a new era of peace. We can all be peacemakers.”

(Full Story)
- posted by Daniel @ 4:22 AM

 
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MARCH 19, 2004
4:27 PM
CONTACT: Kucinich.US
Matt Harris 216.889.2004

Kucinich to Bush Administration: Let Salvadorans Vote


WASHINGTON - March 19 - With El Salvador preparing to vote this Sunday, March 21st, Dennis Kucinich today urged that the Bush Administration not interfere in the elections or attempt to influence the outcome.

Two top officials from the Bush Administration have made strong statements against the country's left-wing FMLN party that, according to Kucinich, "threaten the integrity of Salvadoran elections."

(Full Story)
- posted by Daniel @ 4:18 AM

 
**Note from Dan Stafford**



Too often in the press to get everything done (Hey, I work for a living just like most of you out there.) I don't get to personally comment in here. There's a lot to report on, and I try to make what I chose to bring to this blog speak for me. Right now, I think I need to speak directly.

While I am pretty disappointed with the vote Dennis Kucinich has received so far, I am still backing him 100%. Some might ask why I'm adding my voice to a "losing cause." I don't believe that description fits in this case.

Dennis Kucinich has brought life to issues that many of the Democratic candidates would have loved to ignore just by raising them in public. He's done his utmost to bring attention to issues that directly affect the lives of everyday Americans, working people like you and I. That alone has changed the direction and scope of the political discussion in the Presidential race this year.

For those of you who are worried about splitting the vote in this primary, don't. You can't split the vote in the primary. All this election is about is choosing the candidate and issues you want to be voted on in November in the general election. If you're frightened that Kerry won't get enough votes to go on to take on Bush in November, forget it. John Kerry already has all the votes he needs to become the Democratic candidate for November. Barring something highly unusual, he will be the one facing George Bush.

So at this point, are you asking "Why even go vote in the remaining primaries? Why are you supporting Dennis, Dan?" Here are the reasons you SHOULD DEFINITELY vote in those primaries, and then I'll tell you why I'm still backing Dennis.

If there is anything in Dennis Kucinich's platform that you prefer to John Kerry's position, your votes now will give Dennis Kucinich the backing and voice he needs to influence John Kerry's final position on the issues after the July Democratic Convention. With enough votes, Dennis can say "Look, John, you know these voters want this and believe in it. They believed in it enough to vote for me even though you'd already won. If you don't give them the key things they want, a large number are just going to vote Ralph Nader or not vote at all, and you are going to be neck and neck with George Bush in November. Remember 2000, John?"

Then write to Dennis and tell him exactly which platform positions matter the most to you. It might take him awhile to get through all the e-mail but he will read them. You can write him at denniskucinich@kucinich.us. This is your last hope to get anything changed in the Democratic platform before 2008. I would think long and hard before I threw another vote in a pile that's already overflowed the goal line. Throw it in a pile that will help push the big stack more in a direction you can live with.

What issues? Getting out of NAFTA & WTO to help keep our manufacturing base and technology jobs, both critical national security assets. Getting out of Iraq without shirking our responsibility to those we've harmed. Universal non-profit health care as a right for every citizen. Food as a right. Water as a right. Decent working conditions as a right. A four year college degree as a right. We could easily pay for all of that with a a small fraction of our military budget, which is bigger than the rest of the world combined. If they can lose three trillion dollars surely they can afford to give up 20-30 billion out of over 450 billion per year they spend. After the decades of sacrifice we and our parents put up with to fund the huge military machine, surely we can take a small amount and invest it in the bettering of our lives and our future.

Another key fact. Dennis Kucinich has already sponsored a number of bills that are sitting in committee in the House to do exactly these things.

He also is leading the battle to preserve and restore our civil rights under the Constitution. Help him junk the Patriot act and ensure that our votes count! How much do we need a massive federal government snooping on us?

How much do we need to live afraid of the boogey man in a turban hiding under our beds everyday? If that's what we do then the bums who flew those planes won. Americans are courageous, not fearful and cowering. Courage doesn't mean living locked up ready to fight every day under Big Brother's eye. It means being the ones to help people the world over have food, shelter, education, and freedom. You don't do that by blowing everybody up. You do that by helping the good people do good things. Americans, We The People, have been great at exactly that - living free, helping freely, showing an open and kind hand and only striking when we have been struck. We need to remember that part of our souls.

Have twenty brainwashed fools with nothing more than box cutters changed us that much? I have to believe that the answer is no. We need to be the friend and hope of the world, not it's bully. Let's pick our heads back up, pick our lives back up, and take back the reigns of our lives from the corporations and politicians' greed by supporting good people wherever we find them - especially right here at home. It's time for "kind" to count more than "kool". This isn't high school. We can be this world's best hope. We have been, and we must continue to do so.

That's part of why I still support Dennis 100%. The rest of the reason is because hopefully the world DOESN'T END IN NOVEMBER. I want to continue to work for peace, for human rights, for a sustainable industrial economy that works with our environment instead of trying to rule it to the point it breaks. I am going to spend the rest of my life promoting those goals whenever I can by peaceful and lawful means. So is Dennis Kucinich.

Now is the time. We all need to get out and push, to add fuel to the Kerry rocket aimed at George Bush in November, to help aim it more true. Supporting Dennis is probably your best chance to do that. It's also our best chance of keeping this party together so we can get the votes to push out Bush.

Now it's up to you. It always has been. Get out there and vote, whether you feel I'm right or wrong. Vote your heart and soul. Find out what these two candidates are about, and vote.

Dan



- posted by Daniel @ 12:00 AM

 
Wisconsin, New York Unplug Matrix
10:44 AM Mar. 15, 2004 PT Two more states pull out of the interstate criminal and antiterrorism database known as the Matrix. Wisconsin had joined just a few weeks ago, but once the cost and privacy ramifications became clear, the state reconsidered. By Ryan Singel.
http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,62645,00.html?tw=wn_polihead_8


Privacy Safeguards Deep-Sixed
10:32 AM Mar. 15, 2004 PT Without fanfare, the government dispenses with two projects aimed at protecting the privacy of American citizens from official snooping. The work on more sophisticated data-mining techiques continues, however.
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,62670,00.html?tw=wn_polihead_9


- posted by Daniel @ 9:26 PM

 
Wired News - a must-read for the latest information and commentary on
our rapidly changing digital world.

W I R E D N E W S Top Stories - 09:15AM 19.Mar.04.PST
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

E-Vote Snafu in California County (Machine Politics 2:00 a.m. PDT)
http://go.hotwired.com/news/evote/0,2645,62721,00.html/wn_ascii

Election officials say more than 6,000 votes cast during the state's
March 2 primary were missed by an electronic voting machine in Napa
County. By Kim Zetter.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Pessimism Can't Keep Music Down (DAT's Entertainment 2:00 a.m. PDT)
http://go.hotwired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,62724,00.html/wn_ascii

Despite what you may hear from the major record labels, music isn't
dead yet. In fact, folks at the South by Southwest conference say it's
alive and kicking. Katie Dean reports from Austin, Texas.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Hydrogen: Less Bang for the Buck (Technology 2:00 a.m. PDT)
http://go.hotwired.com/news/technology/0,1282,62722,00.html/wn_ascii

As the U.S. government continues to push for using hydrogen as a fuel
for cars, scientists work on technology designed to prevent the gas
from leaking and causing an explosion. By John Gartner.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Activists Clamor for Paper Trail (Machine Politics Thursday)
http://go.hotwired.com/news/evote/0,2645,62727,00.html/wn_ascii

Electronic voting critics run full-page ads in Maryland and Florida
newspapers calling for paper records of each ballot cast. Meanwhile,
Maryland officials say the machines have never recorded an inaccurate
vote.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Web Access at 75 Percent (Culture Thursday)
http://go.hotwired.com/news/culture/0,1284,62712,00.html/wn_ascii

Three quarters of the American population now have Internet access,
with women slightly more likely than men to spend time surfing, a new
survey says.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Native Species Going, Going, Gone (Culture Thursday)
http://go.hotwired.com/news/culture/0,1284,62715,00.html/wn_ascii

Entire populations of butterflies, birds and plants are on the steep
decline, British scientists say, warning that Earth sits on the brink
of its sixth major extinction event.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
- posted by Daniel @ 9:08 PM

 
'Why we need Dennis Kuncinich to stay in the race'

By Randolph T. Holhut

OpEdNews.Com

DUMMERSTON, Vt. - An AOL Web site called presidentialmatch.com offers voters an interesting compatibility test.

The test asks a series of questions regarding your opinions on various issues ranging from Iraq to gay marriage. At the end, your responses are tallied and are compared with the candidates' views so you can find the one that most closely shares your views.

When I did the questionnaire a few weeks ago, Dennis Kucinich got a perfect 100 percent score. Al Sharpton was second and Howard Dean was third, both with scores in the low 90s.

The result didn't surprise me. Kucinich was the guy I supported in my heart, while my head went for Dean.



Unfortunately, the guy I initially supported because I thought he had a better chance of winning was crushed by the Democratic Party establishment and the media. So, in the Vermont primary on March 2, I voted for Kucinich.

The remnants of the Dean campaign in Vermont were pushing hard to try to win this primary. As far as I was concerned, why would I waste my vote on a candidate who dropped out of the race?

Kucinich isn't dropping out. He wants to stay in to make sure that liberal voters have a choice in what's left of the primary season. But I think he's pressing on mainly to spite all the media folks who've mostly ignored his campaign except for the few times he has popped up on national TV to get berated as a hopeless loser.

But if you think as I do that U.S. troops should be immediately withdrawn from Iraq, that there is no excuse why Americans don't have universal health care, that NAFTA and other trade agreements need to be ripped up and rewritten to protect workers and the environment, and that there should be an all-out effort to wean the American economy off fossil fuels - Kucinich is the candidate you should support.

Yes, I know that John Kerry - for better or worse - is going to be the Democrats' nominee. But there still are another dozen or so primaries remaining. While the chances of Kucinich winning any of them are slim, a respectable showing would send a message to Kerry and the timid centrists who think Kerry is "electable."

That Ralph Nader drew 6 percent in the Associated Press' first presidential poll after "Super Tuesday" should tell Democrats something. There are many people who, much as they hate President Bush, aren't automatically going to vote for Kerry. They see Kerry and don't want to hold their noses to vote for a slightly less worse version of Bush.

Kucinich voted against invading Iraq. He voted against the Patriot Act. He voted against the Bush tax cuts. He stands as the almost total opposite of Kerry on almost every issue.

(Full Story) There's more...Dan
- posted by Daniel @ 6:20 PM

 
DENNIS TO APPEAR ON LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN AND ON DEMOCRACY NOW WITH AMY GOODMAN
Keep an eye on the website for more details about Kucinich's scheduled appearances on Late Show with David Letterman, and Democracy Now with Amy Goodman. Both appearances are scheduled for Monday. Check local listings for showing times in your area.

- posted by Daniel @ 6:15 PM

 
A SOLEMN NOTE

One year ago today, despite objections voiced by millions around the globe in the largest one-day protest in world history, the United States and Great Britain launched a pre-emptive war against Iraq claiming that it was necessary to protect the world from the imminent threat of Weapons of Mass Destruction - a claim later proven to be false. During the past year, 571 American soldiers have been killed in Iraq, and more than 3200 wounded. The number of Iraqi deaths is even greater, with estimates ranging from 8,000 to 10,000.

American and Iraqi families have suffered great loss. The credibility of the United States has been severely damaged. Furthermore, recent bombings in Spain and Iraq indicate that the world is not safer because of our illegal, pre-emptive Iraq war.

While many of our nation's leaders blindly fell in line behind the President in support of the war, Congressman Dennis Kucinich opposed it, organizing two thirds of House Democrats to vote against the Iraq war resolution. While other Democratic presidential candidates bought the Weapons of Mass Destruction myth, Kucinich called it the lie we now know it to be and remained focused on the real threats to our society: poor health care, poor education, and disappearing jobs. Throughout this campaign, Kucinich has courageously advocated for the withdrawal of U.S. troops and an end to the occupation, saying that "if it was wrong to go in, it is wrong to stay in."

Kucinich is the voice for many of us who otherwise would not have one. He continues to bear witness to the truth. Millions of Americans see the tragedy of this war. Dennis Kucinich continuing to campaign ensures that the message of peace will not be lost this election year. Please contribute to help make this possible.

ORGANIZING FOR MARCH 20th PEACE RALLIES
On this anniversary, out of respect for those who have tragically lost their lives, let us renew our struggle for peace. Please help demonstrate our commitment to peace by participating in one of the major rallies in San Francisco or New York or in one of the many local rallies taking place across the country. We encourage all supporters to wear Kucinich apparel and carry Kucinich signs to make our presence known. Visit http://www.unitedforpeace.org/calendar.php?caltype=17 to find the rally nearest you. For more information about Kucinich activities click here: http://www.kucinich.us/march20.php. If you have any questions, call Cleveland HQ at (866) 413-3664.

DENNIS TALKS ABOUT: ENDING THE OCCUPATION IN IRAQ

On Tuesday, March 16 Dennis spoke on the steps of the capitol building in Springfield, Illinois about ending the occupation of Iraq, and about the March 20 Global Day of Action. Click here: http://www.kucinich.us/bringourtroopshome-talksabout.php to see the video. Be sure to frequently check the "Dennis Talks About" feature in the top right corner of the home page. Here you will find audio/video clips and a transcript of Dennis speaking about the issues. These mini-speeches are updated on a regularly basis and are our way of broadcasting what the media won't show you.

SEND US YOUR VIDEO AND/OR PICTURES FROM MARCH 20th RALLIES

We want to air footage of March 20th rallies from around the country. If you have a videographer friend, have him/her film the rally, edit the footage down to under five minutes, and send the video to us in internet format. We will post your video to the web. If you cannot send video, please send us pictures with captions. Email Kucinich Campaign Multimedia Director Chad Ely for further instructions at video@kucinich.us. Be sure to include your telephone number.

DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION ONLY 129 DAYS AWAY!



The Kucinich team is working toward positively influencing the party platform at the Democratic National Convention in Boston this July. Please keep a close eye on this page for updates and information on events and volunteer opportunities leading up to the convention: http://www.kucinich.us/convention.php

Your contributions are still needed as we move closer to this important event: https://www.kucinich.us/contribute.php

ON A LIGHTER NOTE

The Wall Street Journal noted the Kucinich website this week for its humor. In an article comparing the presidential websites, a Culture Corner cartoon by Scott Bateman criticizing the Bush tax cuts caught their attention. They quoted the following line from the cartoon: "Magic pixies sprinkle fairy dust, and WHAM, the economy is back on track!"


Watch cartoon: http://batemania.com/animation/films/kucinichtaxcutsfinal.swf

See other cartoons at the Culture Corner: http://www.kucinich.us/culturecorner.htm


DENNIS TO APPEAR ON LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN AND ON DEMOCRACY NOW WITH AMY GOODMAN
Keep an eye on the website for more details about Kucinich's scheduled appearances on Late Show with David Letterman, and Democracy Now with Amy Goodman. Both appearances are scheduled for Monday. Check local listings for showing times in your area.

Contact us:
Kucinich for President
11808 Lorain Avenue - Cleveland, OH 44111
216-889-2004 / 866-413-3664 (toll-free)
http://www.kucinich.us
- posted by Daniel @ 6:15 PM

 
State Lands available for lease: windpower development

Windpower developers:

The Texas General Land Office (GLO) will hold a sealed bid Windpower Lease Sale for Permanent School Fund lands at the GLO in Austin, Texas on April 20, 2004 at 10:00 a.m..

For a list of lands call Adan Martinez at (512) 463-7250, write
Windpower Leasing, Rm. 600, 1700 N. Congress, Austin, Texas 78701, or preferably--visit www.glo.state.tx.us. An icon on the homepage will lead you to a copy of the bid package.

Adan Martinez will be at the Global Windpower 2004 conference in Chicago from March 26th through 31st. Hope to see you there!
- posted by Daniel @ 6:08 PM

 
Web posted Friday, March 19, 2004

Juneau Democrats welcome Rep. Kucinich
Kerry's last Democratic challenger makes SE stop before Alaska caucuses

By MASHA HERBST
JUNEAU EMPIRE

Juneau Democrats received Rep. Dennis Kucinich enthusiastically on Thursday, as the Ohio congressman expounded on what he called the evils of the Bush administration, U.S. involvement in Iraq and the Patriot Act.

Kucinich is the last remaining challenger to Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry for the Democratic nomination for president. He told Juneau audiences that while he knows Kerry will receive the nomination, he is staying in the race to show progressive Democrats that there is room for them in the party.

(Full Story)
- posted by Daniel @ 5:07 PM

 
A misguided war that has divided the world
By Quentin Peel
Published: March 18 2004 4:00 | Last Updated: March 18 2004 4:00

A year after the misbegotten launch of the war in Iraq, its unresolved consequences continue to haunt us.

Far from uniting in a struggle against terrorism, and joining forces to tackle its causes, we continue to quarrel about the rights and wrongs of invading Iraq. Europe and America have split, and Europe has split over America. Not since the Vietnam war have the two sides seemed so entrenched. Neither proponents nor opponents of intervention in Iraq are prepared to admit their errors. How many more deaths will it take?

(Full Story)
- posted by Daniel @ 8:46 AM

 
Bradbury lists contenders for May ballot

03/19/2004

By BRAD CAIN / Associated Press

With little fanfare, Secretary of State Bill Bradbury on Thursday announced the final list of candidates who will appear on Oregon's May presidential ballot.

But the name of yet another contender could be added to the November general election ballot — political maverick Ralph Nader.

The candidates who will appear on the May 18 ballot are Democrats John Kerry, Dennis Kucinich, and perennial contender Lyndon LaRouche, Bradbury decided. President Bush will be the only Republican on the ballot.

"Although it is disappointing Oregon does not have a bigger role in determining presidential nominees, Oregonians still have a choice between qualified candidates," Bradbury said, referring to the fact Kerry has won enough delegates in earlier primaries to earn his party's nomination.

State law gives the secretary of state the discretion to qualify those candidates for the Oregon ballot who are "generally advocated" or are "recognized in the national news media" as active candidates.

Bradbury said that under that criteria, he certified the names of Kerry, Kucinich and Bush. Supporters of LaRouche qualified him for the ballot by turning in 1,000 signatures from each congressional district.

(Full Story)
- posted by Daniel @ 8:29 AM

 
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MARCH 18, 2004
2:39 PM

CONTACT:
Kucinich.US
Matt Harris 216.889.2004

Kucinich to Address Thousands at New York City Peace Rally Saturday


WASHINGTON - March 18 - Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich, winner of the 2003 Ghandi Peace Award, has accepted an invitation to be one of the keynote speakers at the Rally Against War and Occupation (Global Day of Action) in New York on March 20th.

Kucinich, the Ohio Congressman who led the fight on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives to oppose the 2002 resolution empowering the President to invade Iraq, announced he will leave the campaign trail in Alaska to attend the Saturday events, where tens of thousands are expected from Boston, Washington and the Northeast. Specially designated "peace trains" are also coming from Connecticut, New Jersey and Long Island.

Kucinich, the last remaining active challenger to Sen. John Kerry, is the only Democratic presidential candidate who voted against the war resolution two years ago. "Giving the President carte blanche then was the wrong decision," Kucinich said, "and the events and revelations over the past several months have proven that there was no legitimate basis for the invasion."

More than 250 similar protests are planned in cities all across the United States, as well as in dozens of countries around the world, to mark the one year anniversary of the invasion of Iraq.

"Last year, I stood on New York's First Avenue and looked out at a half-million people who were protesting what was then the prospective involvement of the United States in Iraq." Kucinich said. "Since then we've seen that there has been nothing but a trail of lies that led the United States into its involvement in Iraq. That Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. That Iraq had nothing to do with Al Qaida's role in 9/11, and that it had nothing to do with the Anthrax attack upon this country."

The NYC event begins with an hour-long kickoff rally, then a march through Midtown Manhattan, followed by a closing rally at Madison Ave. and East 23rd St. Other rally speakers will include Tony Benn, former member of the British Parliament; Adele Welty of September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows; and Fernando Suarez del Solar of Military Families Speak Out.

A central plank in Kucinich's platform has been the withdrawal of U.S. Forces from Iraq, as well as the establishment of a cabinet-level Department of Peace. "We must work toward a society in which a Department of Peace is as important as a Department of Defense, in which we spend as much on health and education as we do on our military. We must get the UN in and the US out of Iraq. And we must bring home as soon as possible the American servicemen and women who have served so long and so hard in Iraq."

"Right now, neither the leading Democrat nor the Republican Administration is willing to commit to a plan to bring our troops home," Kucinich said. "I look forward to joining forces with people throughout America and the world as we send a united message to governments and peoples everywhere: an end to war and a beginning to peace. We will no longer tolerate a world in which war is the driving force and peace merely an interval between conflicts."

Thousands of Kucinich campaign volunteers all across the country have been working with local organizers of various March 20th events in New York and other cities to lend support and provide coordination.

http://www.commondreams.org/news2004/0318-03.htm
- posted by Daniel @ 8:27 AM

 
Naderites still say: ‘Ralph, don’t run!’

News Analysis

Jim Carpenter spearheaded the petition drive to place Ralph Nader on the Wisconsin ballot as the Green Party’s presidential nominee in 2000.

This year Carpenter is flatly opposed to Nader’s decision to run for president as an independent, a race that is certain to be seen as “Nader’s Folly.”

Carpenter, a teacher of economics at a Milwaukee community college, is active in the presidential campaign of Dennis Kucinich, the progressive Ohio lawmaker.

“The best way to advance a progressive agenda is to support Dennis Kucinich,” Carpenter told the World. “Kucinich does not create the problem of splitting the vote in November. The focus has to be on removing George W. Bush from the White House. He turns out to be a lot more dangerous than we realized in 2000. We can have a debate on where we need to go as a nation and still unite around the goal of defeating Bush in November.”

(Full Story)
- posted by Daniel @ 5:34 PM

 
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
3/18/2004
CONTACT: Brad Singer, (608) 265-8650, bsinger@geology.wisc.edu; Michael R. Kaplan, mkaplan@tsunami.geo.ed.ac.uk; Daniel Douglass (608) 262-8960, douglass@geology.wisc.edu

NOTE TO PHOTO EDITORS: A high-resolution photo and graphics are available at
http://www.news.wisc.edu/newsphotos/iceage.html

GLACIAL RECORDS DEPICT ICE AGE CLIMATE IN SYNCH WORLDWIDE

MADISON - An answer to the long-standing riddle of whether the Earth's ice ages occurred simultaneously in both the Southern and Northern hemispheres is emerging from the glacial deposits found in the high desert east of the Andes.

Using a new technique to gauge the effects of cosmic rays on minerals found in boulders carried by South American glaciers thousands of years ago, a group of scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison has demonstrated that the Earth's most recent ice ages were global events, likely driven by change in the atmosphere.

The work, reported in the current (March/April) issue of the Geological Society of America Bulletin, a leading earth science journal, is important because it reveals that ice ages were global in nature, a fact scientists had trouble determining due to the difficulty of precisely dating the jumble of debris - sand, gravel, clay, boulders - that ice age glaciers leave in their wakes. The new work suggests that ice ages were worldwide phenomena due, in part, to the sluggish redistribution of solar energy through the world's oceans punctuated by repeated, rapid cooling of the Earth's atmosphere.

The work is certain to help researchers of past climates unravel the mysteries of the ice ages that periodically grip the planet, but it also will help those trying to understand current and future climate change by helping to determine the natural causes of changes in the Earth's climate system at a global scale.

"The results are significant because they indicate that the whole Earth experiences major ice age cold periods at the same time, and thus, some climate forcing mechanism must homogenize the Earth's climate system during ice ages and, by inference, other periods," says Michael R. Kaplan, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Edinburgh who conducted the work in a postdoctoral position at UW-Madison.

The Wisconsin team, which was supported by the National Science Foundation and worked under the direction of UW-Madison geology professor Brad Singer, collected samples of quartz and other minerals from boulders found on the crests of the moraines that mark the waxing and waning of mountain glaciers in the Andes Mountains of Argentina.

Using a technique to read the changes imposed by cosmic rays - charged, high-energy particles that bombard the Earth from outer space - on atoms found in the mineral quartz, the UW-Madison researchers were able to precisely date a sequence of moraines, ridge-like glacial features composed of an amalgam of rocks, clay, sand and gravel. Their results show that glacial ice in South America reached its apex 22,000 years ago and had begun to disappear by 16,000 years ago.

"We've been able to get quite precise ages directly on these glacial deposits," says Singer, whose specialty is geochronology. "What we found was that the structure of the last South American ice age is indistinguishable from the last major glaciation in the Northern Hemisphere."

What's more, the group found evidence that the last major glacial period prior to the last ice age, from a time dating to 150,000 years ago, mirrored North American climate for the same period.

"During the last two times in Earth's history when glaciation occurred in North America, the Andes also had major glacial periods," says Kaplan.

The results address a major debate in the scientific community, according to Singer and Kaplan, because they seem to undermine a widely held idea that global redistribution of heat through the oceans is the primary mechanism that drove major climate shifts of the past.

The implications of the new work, say the authors of the study, support a different hypothesis: that rapid cooling of the Earth's atmosphere synchronized climate change around the globe during each of the last two glacial epochs.

"Because the Earth is oriented in space in such a way that the hemispheres are out of phase in terms of the amount of solar radiation they receive, it is surprising to find that the climate in the Southern Hemisphere cooled off repeatedly during a period when it received its largest dose of solar radiation," says Singer. "Moreover, this rapid synchronization of atmospheric temperature between the polar hemispheres appears to have occurred during both of the last major ice ages that gripped the Earth."

The technique used by the Wisconsin team, says Daniel C. Douglass, a co-author of the paper, uses cosmic rays to determine how long material at the surface of the Earth has been exposed to the atmosphere. When the high-energy cosmic ray particles, which bombard the Earth from sources beyond the solar system, strike oxygen atoms in quartz on the surface of the Earth, they break apart, creating new atoms of an isotope known as 10-beryllium. The number of 10-beryllium atoms in a rock sample allows scientists to precisely date when a particular rock was deposited on the surface of the Earth by a glacier or some other mechanism.

According to Singer and Douglass, the dating method is relatively new, and requires reducing kilograms of quartz-bearing rock to about a million atoms of 10-beryllium in the laboratory. Those atoms are then analyzed using an accelerator mass spectrometer to determine how long ago the quartz was exposed to cosmic rays, which can only penetrate the top meter or so of the Earth.

In addition to Kaplan, Singer and Douglass, co-authors of the GSA Bulletin article include Robert P. Ackert, Jr., and Mark D. Kurz, both of the department of marine chemistry and geochemistry at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Mass.
###
- Terry Devitt (608) 262-8282, trdevitt@wisc.edu




****************************************************
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University Communications
University of Wisconsin-Madison
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500 Lincoln Drive
Madison, WI 53706

Phone: (608) 262-3571
Fax: (608) 262-2331
- posted by Daniel @ 5:27 PM

 
Bush, Kerry, Kucinich and Sharpton to be on May ballot

10:55 AM MST on Thursday, March 18, 2004

Associated Press

BOISE -- Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich and New York activist Al Sharpton will be on Idaho's Democratic presidential primary ballot in May.

Secretary of State Ben Ysursa made the announcement Thursday.

Although Massachusetts Senator John Kerry has wrapped up the Democratic nomination, Ysursa said both Kucinich and Sharpton have said publicly they remain in the race, qualifying them for the ballot.

(Full Story)
- posted by Daniel @ 5:22 PM

 
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Great Lakes News: 18 March 2004
A collaborative project of the Great Lakes Information Network and the Great
Lakes Radio Consortium.

For links to these stories and more, visit http://www.great-lakes.net/news/

Canadian reveals ferry plan
----------------------------------------
The Canadian national government will invest more than $2 million (Canadian)
in a new ferry terminal in Toronto to make sure it's a first-class facility,
a member of Parliament says. Source: Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
(3/18)


Plans threaten 900 Hydro jobs
----------------------------------------
More than 900 high-paying jobs could be lost in Southwestern Ontario if the
provincial government goes ahead with plans to close coal-fired electricity
plants by the end of 2007. Source: The London Free Press (3/18)


Visitors association wants money to market Rochester
----------------------------------------
With the fast ferry sailing toward Rochester, the Greater Rochester Visitors
Association wants to develop a marketing plan to promote western New York in
Canada. Source: WOKR13.TV (3/18)


Air, sludge issues debated in canal cleanup
----------------------------------------
The East Chicago Waterway Management District Board of Directors discussed
testing procedures involving ambient air monitoring and dredging of
sediments from the Indiana Harbor and Shipping Canal at Tuesday's meeting.
Source: The Northwest Indiana Times (3/18)


Ontario's hydro bill: $40B
----------------------------------------
Ontario is looking at a staggering price tag of up to $40 billion to upgrade
the province's aging electricity system, Energy Minister Dwight Duncan said
yesterday. Source: The Toronto Star (3/18)


Water is cold, but steelhead still bites
----------------------------------------
Starting in the 1870s, steelhead were planted in streams around the Great
Lakes, and it turned out that they didn't care if the big water was salt or
fresh, as long as it contained plenty of bait fish. Source: Detroit Free
Press (3/18)


Invasive species are often pretty plant in disguise
----------------------------------------
What appears to be a lovely flowering plant or shrub can sometimes be an
invader in disguise choking native species in its path. Source: Journal
Gazette and Times-Courier (3/17)


Sand comments grate on city councilman
----------------------------------------
A Norton Shores city councilman blasted a member of a local citizens' group
Tuesday after she accused the council of not doing more to stop Nugent Sand
Co. from building a pipeline through a Lake Michigan dune. Source: Muskegon
Chronicle (3/17)


Researchers to study walleye during spawning season
----------------------------------------
Fisheries biologists studying the reproductive success of Lake Erie walleye
will sample fish at various spawning areas this spring, according to the
Ohio Department of Resources Division of Wildlife. Source: Port Clinton
News Herald (3/17)


Lake St. Clair is rising
----------------------------------------
Lake St. Clair water levels are more than a foot above levels this time last
year, prompting marinas and boaters to be optimistic for recreation
opportunities this summer. Source: The Macomb Daily (3/13)
For links to these stories and more, visit http://www.great-lakes.net/news/

Did you miss a day of Daily News? Remember to use our searchable story
archive at http://www.great-lakes.net/news/inthenews.html


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- posted by Daniel @ 5:12 PM

 
Web posted Thursday, March 18, 2004

Around Town


Today

Native Issues Forum, 2-3 p.m., ANB Hall, 320 West Willoughby Ave. Guest speaker Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich. Details: Dana, 463-7105.

(Full Story)
- posted by Daniel @ 5:10 PM

 
ENN Environmental News Network
E-mail Edition 03/18/04

Industrial Fishing Turns Birds to Cannibalism and other stories
An international team of researchers says factory fishing is upsetting the natural balance of bird populations. While processing catches at sea, the factory ships dump tons of unwanted bycatch such as sandeels over the side. Opportunistic seabirds known as great skuas now make most of their living on these discards.
http://www.enn.com/news/2004-03-18/s_13806.asp

Oyster farmers and dairy ranchers clash over pollution in California bay
Martin Strain reached into the greenish-blue waters of Tomales Bay and pulled up a mesh bag full of gnarled Pacific oysters, the center of a long-running dispute between dairy ranchers and shellfish growers in this coastal community.
http://www.enn.com/news/2004-03-18/s_14141.asp

Fish-killing ban on wild steelheads sparks culture war in Washington state
The long-smoldering debate over whether fishers should toss wild fish back into the water or take them home for dinner has flared into a culture war on Washington's remote Olympic Peninsula.
http://www.enn.com/news/2004-03-18/s_14142.asp

Alaska refuge's oil would have little impact on imports, study finds
America's dependence on oil imports will continue to grow even if the government were to allow oil drilling in an Alaska wildlife refuge, according to an Energy Department analysis.
http://www.enn.com/news/2004-03-18/s_14139.asp

Africa's Nile nations chart fairer use of waters
Poor nations that are home to some of Africa's most arid corners will push for a fairer share of Nile waters Thursday, exploring joint ventures in energy and irrigation to spread the river's bounty more equitably.
http://www.enn.com/news/2004-03-18/s_14134.asp

University of the Virgin Islands is launching solar-powered lights on St. Croix campus
With no shortage of sunshine over this U.S. Caribbean territory, a local university is launching a solar-powered light system it hopes will save money and set an environmentally friendly example.
http://www.enn.com/news/2004-03-18/s_14137.asp

UNICEF chief says energy-starved North Korea can't provide clean water, heat schools
North Korea lacks enough electricity to pump clean water or heat schools while food shortages still threaten children in the impoverished nation, UNICEF chief Carol Bellamy said Wednesday.
http://www.enn.com/news/2004-03-18/s_14140.asp

U.S. House panel agrees to extend ethanol subsidy
The House's tax-writing committee agreed Wednesday to extend a tax subsidy for corn-based ethanol through 2010 to encourage the use of the alternative fuel.
http://www.enn.com/news/2004-03-18/s_14136.asp

Companies make $368.8 million in high bids for lease sale in Gulf
With worldwide demand pushing up prices for oil and natural gas, exploration companies made $368.8 million in high bids on 557 tracts for this year's sale of federal offshore leases in the central Gulf of Mexico.
http://www.enn.com/news/2004-03-18/s_14138.asp



Environmental Marketplace Updates (Become a Member)

We'd like to encourage you to visit our Environmental Marketplace where you'll learn about some amazing environmentally-focused businesses. A few examples:

Endangered Species Chocolate Company, a company created in an effort to raise environmental and social awareness. Using premium, all natural and organic chocolate as a medium for their message, the ESCC hopes to effect change in commerce and instill a sense of responsibility in consumers and the corporate world as well. Learn more about the Endangered Species Chocolate Company

G.A.P. Adventures, an exciting travel company that was born with a vision of travelling while respecting the land and her people. While others focus on attractions and creating a western environment, their vision is face-to-face travel at a grassroots level. Learn more about G.A.P. Adventures

ShoreBank Pacific, the first commercial bank in the United States with a commitment to environmentally-sustainable community development. Learn more about ShoreBank Pacific

University of California Press is the nonprofit publishing arm of the University of California. They publish and distribute a full spectrum of distinguished works. One such work is the recent photography book published by Sierra Club Books, "Urban Forest--Images of Trees in the Human Landscape" by David Paul Bayles. Learn more about UC Press/Sierra Club Books.

Worldwise, a leading supplier and brand of environmentally responsible consumer products that are changing the way Americans feel about the look, feel, price and performance of earth-friendly products. Worldwise is guided by the principle of sustainability--a step beyond conservation that maintains the planet's natural functions, resources and beauty. Learn more about Worldwise








Today's Press Releases (Become an Affiliate)
Direct from non-profit environmental and educational organizations.

International City/County Management Association:
ICMA to Host Consensus Building for Watershed Protection Webcast

Sustainable Forestry and Certification Watch:
Ontario Minister of Natural Resources, FSC-US President to Join Prominent Speakers at 5th Certification Watch Conference

World Resources Institute:
Business Leaders to Outline Corporate Responses to Global Crises at WRI's Sustainable Enterprise Summit

WWF-US Communications:
Sumatran Tiger on Brink of Extinction

United Nations Environment Programme:
Arctic faces drastic change without EU policy action

Aldo Leopold Leadership Program:
20 Scientists Named Leopold Leadership Fellows for 2004

Natural Resources Defense Council:
Transportation Bill Could Promote Inactivity, Intensify Obesity Epidemic

American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy:
ACEEE Applauds Acceptance of SEER 13 Air Conditioner Standard

Pew Fellows Program in Marine Conservation:
Pew Fellow Mark Erdmann to Educate Indonesians About World's Largest Coral Reefs

Pew Fellows Program in Marine Conservation:
Pew Fellow Claudio Campagna to Foster 'Sea & Sky Park' in Patagonia

Pew Fellows Program in Marine Conservation:
Pew Fellow Julia Horrocks to Expand Sea Turtle Conservation in Barbados

California Certified Organic Farmers:
Worldwide Methyl Bromide Phase Out to be Addressed at March Meeting in Montreal

- posted by Daniel @ 5:08 PM

 
The Great Lakes Directory (http://www.GreatLakesDirectory.org) is a comprehensive online resource highlighting environmental issues around the Great Lakes basin. The Directory contains daily environmental articles, a network of over 1,000 environmental groups, funding resources, free environmental software, nonprofit management resources, and a massive library of online Great Lakes environmental information.

Here are your weekly Great Lakes environmental jobs, events and news headlines from the Great Lakes Directoy. More headlines, action alerts, resources, grants, jobs, and free activist software at http://www.GreatLakesDirectory.org

From Jenny Tahtinen of the Environmental Association of Great Lakes Education (EAGLE).
http://www.Eagle-EcoSource.org

Check out the Great Lakes Directory's Issue Pages for information on your environmental concerns!
http://www.greatlakesdirectory.org

THIS WEEK'S GREAT LAKES HEADLINES:

03/16 - GREAT LAKES: Their health depends on consistent monitoring
http://www.greatlakesdirectory.org/mi/031604_great_lakes.htm

03/16 - Wolves return on own terms to northwest Wisconsin
http://www.greatlakesdirectory.org/wi/031604_great_lakes.htm

03/16 - Two Great Lakes mayors join Water Commission
http://www.greatlakesdirectory.org/il/031604_great_lakes.htm

03/15 - Comment on discharge plan goes on in Manistee, MI
http://www.greatlakesdirectory.org/mi/031504_great_lakes.htm

03/15 - Invaders poisoning amphibians
http://www.greatlakesdirectory.org/pa/031504_great_lakes.htm

03/15 - State's groundwater pumping reversing lake's water flow
http://www.greatlakesdirectory.org/mi/031504_great_lakes.htm

03/12 - Tiny computers help scientist solve Great Lakes fish mysteries
http://www.greatlakesdirectory.org/mi/031204__great_lakes.htm

03/12 - Zebra mussels boost algae growth
http://www.greatlakesdirectory.org/mi/031204_great_lakes.htm

03/11 - Lakes With Zebra Mussels Have Higher Levels Of Toxins
http://www.greatlakesdirectory.org/mi/031104_great_lakes.htm

03/11 - Tighter standards for lakes pursued
http://www.greatlakesdirectory.org/oh/031104__great_lakes.htm

03/11 - Advisories on Great Lakes inconsistent, group reports
http://www.greatlakesdirectory.org/oh/031104_great_lakes.htm

03/10 - Ashland erosion control workshop scheduled for March 31
http://www.greatlakesdirectory.org/wi/031004_great_lakes.htm

03/10 - New York Sea Grant Benefits From Federal Research Awards
http://www.greatlakesdirectory.org/ny/031004_great_lakes.htm

03/10 - States inconsistent in measuring water quality of Great Lakes
http://www.greatlakesdirectory.org/mi/031004_great_lakes.htm

For more information, go to http://www.GreatLakesDirectory.org

GREAT LAKES ENVIRONMENTAL JOBS:
http://www.greatlakesdirectory.org/jobs.htm

GREAT LAKES ENVIRONMENTAL EVENTS:
http://www.greatlakesdirectory.org/events.htm
To subscribe and receive Great Lakes environmental news, action alerts, jobs and events in your email once a week: http://www.GreatLakesDirectory.org

-----------------------------------------------
Jenny Tahtinen-
Great Lakes Directory / EAGLE
394 Lake Avenue South, Suite #222
Duluth, MN 55802
Phone:(218)726-1828
fax:(240)526-2670
Jenny@EAGLE-EcoSource.org
- posted by Daniel @ 4:19 PM

 
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Great Lakes News: 17 March 2004
A collaborative project of the Great Lakes Information Network and the Great
Lakes Radio Consortium.

For links to these stories and more, visit http://www.great-lakes.net/news/

Bubbles, noise may deter bighead carp
----------------------------------------
An underwater fence of bubbles and sound may be Minnesota's best hope for
slowing the migration up the Mississippi River of the voracious bighead
carp, according to a study released Tuesday that dismissed an earlier plan
for an electric barrier as too costly. Source: Star Tribune (3/17)


Suburbs, Green Bay say water talks over
----------------------------------------
Drinking water talks between Green Bay and its suburbs appear dead - this
time for good. Source: Green Bay Press-Gazette (3/17)


It's now sink or swim for Lake Ontario ferry
----------------------------------------
The passenger ferry is zipping its way from Australia to Rochester, but
rough financial waters in Toronto are threatening to sink The Breeze.
Source: The Toronto Star (3/17)


Marblehead, firm talk about resuming ferry
----------------------------------------
Marblehead and the Kelleys Island Ferry Boat Line agreed yesterday on some
interim steps that could lead to the resumption of service across Lake Erie
tomorrow. Source: The Toledo Blade (3/17)


Ontario's five coal-fired plants to shut down within four years
----------------------------------------
Ontario's five coal-fired electricity-generating plants will be shut down
within four years, forcing the government to consider fast options to
replace almost one-third of all the power produced in Ontario. Source: The
Globe and Mail (3/17)


EPA urged not to delay mercury rules
----------------------------------------
A national public health advocacy group is urging the federal government to
tighten limits on mercury pollution to protect the health of women and
children. Source: The Plain Dealer (3/17)


Fish on! Chinook salmon catch numbers are way up
----------------------------------------
Anglers on Lake Michigan charter boats were hauling in 35 percent more
Chinook salmon in 2003 than they did in 2001, according to the Michigan
Department of Natural Resources. Source: Muskegon Chronicle (3/17)


Mohawks want ice breaking stopped on river
----------------------------------------
St. Regis Mohawk officials want icebreaking to stop on the St. Lawrence
River, citing environmental concerns. Source: Newsday (3/16)


Internet cutoff ordered at Interior
----------------------------------------
A federal judge in Washington yesterday ordered the Interior Department to
shut down most of its employees' Internet access and some of its public Web
sites after concluding that the agency has failed to fix computer security
problems that threaten millions of dollars owed to Native Americans. Source:
The Washington Post (3/16)

For links to these stories and more, visit http://www.great-lakes.net/news/

Did you miss a day of Daily News? Remember to use our searchable story
archive at http://www.great-lakes.net/news/inthenews.html


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Information Network (www.glin.net) and the Great Lakes Radio
Consortium (www.glrc.org), both based in Ann Arbor, Mich.
TO SUBSCRIBE and receive this Great Lakes news compendium daily, see
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- posted by Daniel @ 4:08 PM

 
ENN Environmental News Network
E-mail Edition 03/17/2004

EPA to judge energy-efficient courthouses
The National Association of Counties, representing more than 1,500 county officials, has joined with the U.S. EPA in challenging counties to protect the environment, save energy, and cut operating costs by improving the energy efficiency of county courthouse and office buildings.
http://www.enn.com/news/2004-03-17/s_13805.asp

E.U. moves to protect dolphins, porpoises ensnared in fishers' nets
European Union nations are close to agreeing on measures designed save the lives of thousands of dolphins and porpoises caught accidentally in fishing nets, officials said Tuesday.
http://www.enn.com/news/2004-03-17/s_14093.asp

Singapore is tightening air pollutant regulations
Singapore will tighten environmental regulations in 2006 to meet a European air pollution standard that would sharply reduce dangerous fuel emissions, a government official said on Tuesday.
http://www.enn.com/news/2004-03-17/s_14089.asp

Captive China pandas to get more space
Some of China's captive pandas are about to move up market.
http://www.enn.com/news/2004-03-17/s_14088.asp

New York may join growing number of states banning backyard trash burns
New York may join a growing number of states that ban the burning of household and farm trash in backyard barrels, as physicians and environmentalists argue the practice releases harmful toxins into the air.
http://www.enn.com/news/2004-03-17/s_14094.asp

Ethics office says U.S. Interior official didn't act improperly
The Office of Government Ethics said the Interior Department's No. 2 official, Steven Griles, did not appear to violate ethics rules by arranging meetings between Interior officials and his former lobbying clients and partners.
http://www.enn.com/news/2004-03-17/s_14092.asp

Paraguay protesters march on farm, justice issues
About 5,000 farmers and leftists marched in Paraguay Tuesday to press such demands as the regulation of pesticide use and limiting the migration of Brazilian farmers to Paraguay.
http://www.enn.com/news/2004-03-17/s_14091.asp

U.S. oil tanker law could raise gasoline prices
U.S. gasoline supplies could be in short supply this summer, and pump prices may skyrocket even more because of a new law that would ban oil tankers from entering U.S. ports if the ships fail to meet security standards.
http://www.enn.com/news/2004-03-17/s_14090.asp



Environmental Marketplace Updates (Become a Member)

We'd like to encourage you to visit our Environmental Marketplace where you'll learn about some amazing environmentally-focused businesses. A few examples:

Endangered Species Chocolate Company, a company created in an effort to raise environmental and social awareness. Using premium, all natural and organic chocolate as a medium for their message, the ESCC hopes to effect change in commerce and instill a sense of responsibility in consumers and the corporate world as well. Learn more about the Endangered Species Chocolate Company

G.A.P. Adventures, an exciting travel company that was born with a vision of travelling while respecting the land and her people. While others focus on attractions and creating a western environment, their vision is face-to-face travel at a grassroots level. Learn more about G.A.P. Adventures

ShoreBank Pacific, the first commercial bank in the United States with a commitment to environmentally-sustainable community development. Learn more about ShoreBank Pacific

University of California Press is the nonprofit publishing arm of the University of California. They publish and distribute a full spectrum of distinguished works. One such work is the recent photography book published by Sierra Club Books, "Urban Forest--Images of Trees in the Human Landscape" by David Paul Bayles. Learn more about UC Press/Sierra Club Books.

Worldwise, a leading supplier and brand of environmentally responsible consumer products that are changing the way Americans feel about the look, feel, price and performance of earth-friendly products. Worldwise is guided by the principle of sustainability--a step beyond conservation that maintains the planet's natural functions, resources and beauty. Learn more about Worldwise




Today's Press Releases (Become an Affiliate)
Direct from non-profit environmental and educational organizations.

The Trust for Public Land:
Key Cascade Foothills Parcel Protected (WA)

World Resources Institute:
Business Leaders to Outline Corporate Responses to Global Crises at WRI's Sustainable Enterprise Summit

Sustainable Forestry and Certification Watch:
Ontario Minister of Natural Resources, FSC-US President to Join Prominent Speakers at 5th Certification Watch Conference

WWF-US Communications:
Sumatran Tiger on Brink of Extinction

International City/County Management Association:
ICMA to Host Consensus Building for Watershed Protection Webcast

Aldo Leopold Leadership Program:
20 Scientists Named Leopold Leadership Fellows for 2004

United Nations Environment Programme:
Arctic faces drastic change without EU policy action

- posted by Daniel @ 3:58 PM

 

Running on empty?
Last challenger vows to fight on

By Mark Caro
Tribune staff reporter
Published March 17, 2004

If the race for the Democratic presidential nomination is over, someone forgot to tell Dennis Kucinich.

There he was Saturday night, rallying a standing-room-only crowd of about 230 at the "body-mind-spirit" store Healing Earth Resources on North Ashland Avenue, as he pledged to keep campaigning through the Democratic National Convention in July.

Never mind that John Kerry already has nailed down the 2,162 delegates required for the nomination while progressive torch-carrier Kucinich has collected a mere 23. The 57-year-old Ohio representative and former Cleveland mayor spent the days leading up to Tuesday's primary canvassing Chicago and the rest of the state to spread his pro-peace/get-out-of-Iraq, anti-NAFTA/WTO, pro-universal-health care message.

"I'm a realist about the numbers," Kucinich told the casually clad Healing Earth audience, his 5-foot-7 frame tucked into a charcoal suit, his raspy voice booming as he stalked the center aisle without the balky microphone that had been provided. "I can count, OK? But I can also figure. . . . I figure the Democrats are not going to win the election sounding like the Republicans."

(Full Story)
- posted by Daniel @ 8:20 AM

 
Kucinich picks district over Iraq vote
By Hans Nichols

Rep. Dennis Kucinich, the Democratic presidential candidate who has made his opposition to the war in Iraq the mainstay of his quixotic campaign, plans to skip today?s House vote honoring the bravery of the U.S. troops who liberated Iraq.

Instead, the Ohio lawmaker will tend to the more parochial needs of his district and will play host to Bush-appointed NASA Administrator Sean O?Keefe in the hope of bringing 500 space jobs to the Cleveland area.

Kucinich will be joined by Ohio Gov. Bob Taft, a Republican, and Ohio Republican Sen. George Voinovich at ?NASA Glenn,? which a Kucinich press release says ?is one of six centers nationwide being considered to house NASA?s Shared Services Center (NSSC).? The center is named for former Sen. John Glenn (D-Ohio), one of the nation?s first astronauts.

Spokesman Doug Gordon said Kucinich is prepared to miss the Iraq vote for ?three reasons: jobs, jobs, jobs.? Gordon said he believed the lawmaker would vote against the resolution ?if he makes it back.?

(Full Story)
- posted by Daniel @ 7:25 AM

 




Dear Friend,

In recent days Apollo has continued to gain more important champions...Read On....

America needs an economic policy that puts people to work, investing in good jobs and rebuilding our competitive industrial base, not policies that rewards big business at the expense of working Americans. Last week, President Bush aggressively defended his economic policies of tax cuts that move investment capital off shore. While Bush claims that his economic policies will stimulate the economy and create new jobs, in reality the Bush economic team has nothing to brag about.

With 3 million jobs lost since President Bush took office, and 7 million jobs short of expectations, the American people need a better vision for the economy. A new Apollo Project is a critical piece of a better economic policy for America. Meeting the challenge of energy independence will create new investment and jobs that last.

In a major policy address, Senator Hillary Clinton recently told an audience in Washington, DC and called for a major investment in smart energy technologies similar to a "Manhattan" or "Apollo" projects. Stating, "There is no reason that the United States cannot and should not be the leader in smart energy technology," Senator Clinton called for a new Apollo Project as a chance to restore America's can-do spirit as well as good jobs. To read the text of Senator Clinton's speech, click here.

At the same time, noted author and labor analyst Neal Peirce in his syndicated column called Apollo "an equation for hope" that it will create "unexportable jobs" by focusing on reconstructing our infrastructure to meet new economic and social challenges. To read Peirce's article, click here.

With your support, the Apollo Alliance is making strides toward a better economic and environmental future. Check our homepage for more information about how you can help join the fight for energy independence.

To donate to the Apollo Alliance, visit: https://secure3.ctsg.com/apolloalliance/donation/
- posted by Daniel @ 3:28 PM

 
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Great Lakes News: 16 March 2004
A collaborative project of the Great Lakes Information Network and the Great
Lakes Radio Consortium.

For links to these stories and more, visit http://www.great-lakes.net/news/

E.P.A. may tighten its proposal on mercury
----------------------------------------
The Bush administration says it is rethinking its proposed rules limiting
mercury emissions from coal-burning power plants and as a result may tighten
the proposal. Source: The New York Times (3/16)


EDITORIAL: Great Lakes' health depends on consistent monitoring
----------------------------------------
Great Lakes states need to establish common standards for measuring
everything from how often beaches are closed to swimmers to how well
wetlands are holding up throughout the Great Lakes basin. Source: Detroit
Free Press (3/16)


Former congressman launches petition to limit out-of-state trash
----------------------------------------
Michigan environmentalists, led by former U.S. Rep. David Bonior, have
thrown their support behind federal legislation that would enable
communities to halt imports of out-of-state trash. Source: Detroit Free
Press (3/16)


Bay Shipbuilding gets $2M in tax credits
----------------------------------------
Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle has announced $2 million in tax credits for Bay
Shipbuilding Co., which is building a new facility that will enable it
produce ships much faster. Source: Green Bay Press-Gazette (3/16)


Duluth councilors erase aquarium debt
----------------------------------------
The Duluth City Council has voted to erase $4.4 million in debt for the
Great Lakes Aquarium, which they hope will clear the way for a long-term
management contract for the facility. Source: Duluth News Tribune (3/16)


New York may ban backyard trash burns
----------------------------------------
New York may join a growing number of states that ban the burning of
household and farm trash in backyard barrels, which physicians and
environmentalists argue releases harmful toxins into the air. Source: Centre
Daily Times (3/16)


Sprawl pushes West Michigan high on pollution list
----------------------------------------
Air quality in the Grand Rapids-Holland-Muskegon region has suffered because
of sprawling development, according to a study that ranks the area as the
15th-worst in the nation for per-capita tailpipe pollution. Source: The
Grand Rapids Press (3/16)


Support for clean waters may help environmental bill's chances
----------------------------------------
A bill that would give voters a chance to create an annual pool of money to
clean up Minnesota's lakes and rivers is working its way through the state
legislature with a strong ally in the governor. Source: Duluth News Tribune
(3/15)


Invaders poisoning amphibians
----------------------------------------
Stunning vistas of water-loving purple flowers may be steeping young
American toads in poison. Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (3/15)


Changes in walleye regulations in effect on Lake Erie, tributaries
----------------------------------------
Fisheries officials from Michigan, Ohio and Ontario are asking anglers to
pay attention to significant changes in fishing regulations for lakes Eire
and St. Clair. Source: Booth Newspapers (3/14)

For links to these stories and more, visit http://www.great-lakes.net/news/

Did you miss a day of Daily News? Remember to use our searchable story
archive at http://www.great-lakes.net/news/inthenews.html


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- posted by Daniel @ 1:22 PM

 
Message: 1
Date: Mon, 15 Mar 2004 13:35:17 -0000
From: ann
Subject: Kucinich Inspires British Peace Bill

Reprinted from Share International magazine March 2004
http://www.share-international.org/magazine/SI_current.htm

British Ministry for Peace Bill

British Labour Member of Parliament John McDonnell has presented a
Bill to Parliament calling for a "Ministry for Peace". The
Bill is sponsored by a cross-party group of MPs, and was inspired by
Dennis Kucinich, Democratic contender for the US Presidency, who has
called for a Cabinet-level Department of Peace in the United States.
"We came into being to be a voice for the millions who marched
for peace throughout the United Kingdom in 2003," says Diana
Basterfield, chair of the steering committee promoting the Ministry
for Peace. "The British people in all their diversity clearly
showed that we have evolved to a point where violence is morally
unacceptable as a tool of foreign policy."

The Minister for Peace would have a place in the Cabinet and speak up
for non-violent conflict resolution and alternatives to war. The
Ministry would support and promote research into the causes and
impacts of conflict, monitoring potential areas of conflict and
advancing practical techniques to avoid outbreaks of violence before
they arise.

As Christopher Titmuss explains: "The English have engaged in
wars for 56 out of every 100 years during the last thousand years
? more than any other nation. One to 2 million walked on the
streets of London on a Saturday in February 2003, as well as in many other
towns and cities in Britain on that day, demanding an end to the
proposed war on Iraq. People in 600 cities around the world walked
for peace on that day.

"A Ministry for Peace would send out an historic signal to the
country and to the world marking a possibility for a momentous
departure from our history of war making. This country has more
responsibility (along with the USA) for such a Ministry because of
our painful history and global influence.

"There is no better time for change. As John McDonnell said:
`We have to catch the wind.' This would be an historic piece
of legislation ? probably as significant as giving women the vote
in the last century. On matters of peace, the government needs to be
held to greater accountability, both within itself and outside
itself. This initiative addresses both.

"This is a new millennium and requires a vision to go with it.
Wars belong to the past, to uncivilized responses to conflict. Peace,
negotiation, reconciliation and facilitation belong to the
present."
(Source: Positive News, UK; www.ministryforpeace.org.uk)
- posted by Daniel @ 1:05 PM

 
Presidential Hopes Aren't Fading
HOI 19 News
Monica Landeros

ohn Kerry has reached the magic number. The Massachusetts senator has now secured the delegates he needs to win the democratic presidential nomination.

But that's not stopping one major underdog, who's refusing to drop out of the race.

Dennis Kucinich knows he's fighting an uphill battle, but with the time ticking away until Illinois voters head to the polls, he's making some last ditch campaign stops right here in the Heart of Illinois on Sunday.

Kucinich, is working hard to rally up support at the UAW Hall in East Peoria. Thee democrat is focusing on fair health care, saving jobs, and world peace.

Despite the fact that the numbers are not in his favo, he's not giving up.

(Full Story)
- posted by Daniel @ 5:28 AM

 
Kucinich: Ouster of Spanish government sends message to U.S.
March 15, 2004
http://www.kucinich.us/statements/statement-031504.php


The ouster of Spain's pro-Iraq-war government by voters yesterday should send a clear signal to the Bush Administration and to Democratic Party hoping to defeat him that "a war built on lies and an occupation based on greed" are issues that will determine the outcome of this year's Presidential election.

"The defeat of the pro-war, pro-Bush leadership in Spain comes as no surprise to Americans and other members of the world community who believe the invasion of Iraq has made us all less safe, rather than more safe," Kucinich said. "And unless the Democratic Party is willing to display the courage to challenge the war and the no-end-in-sight occupation, peace loving Americans will not place their confidence in our Party."

Kucinich, who is still actively campaigning, said Sen. John Kerry and the Democratic Party leadership "must understand that this issue will not go away simply because they appear to have collected enough delegates."

"I am in this race to make sure that doesn't happen," said Kucinich, who led the fight in the U.S. House to oppose the resolution empowering Bush to invade Iraq almost one year ago.
- posted by Daniel @ 5:26 AM

 
Date: Mon, 15 Mar 2004 12:16:25 +0100
From: "Robert Alcock" ralcock@euskalnet.net
Subject: I Live in a Free Country

www.lesspress.com/politics/freecountry.htm

I Live in a Free Country

Hello, my name is Robert and I live in a free country.

I was born in England of Anglo-American parents, but now I live in Bilbao,
the main city in the Basque Country of northern Spain. As the world knows,
this week Spain has lived through a period of intense pain, grief, turmoil
and transformation. We have experienced the bloodiest massacre since the
1940s, enormous street demonstrations, official cover-ups and revelations, a
general election and a long-awaited change of government. Years of history
telescoped into the space of four days.

For me, this week has been a lesson in how a free country works, how free
people act. The Spanish people have held up a picture of freedom to the
billions around the world who dream of living in a free country. I would
like to share my experience with you.

* * *

The facts are known. The bombs were placed on the train in rucksacks and
timed to explode as it entered the crowded station on Thursday morning.
Fortunately, trains don't always run on time. This one was two minutes late.
Two hundred people were killed; it could have been two thousand.

The Spanish people reacted as any people would: rage, grief, outpourings of
support: the blood banks overflowed. The Spanish government also showed its
true colours. President Aznar (not really Spain's president, but its prime
minister) came on television to express his grief and condolences, and to
point the finger at the culprits: ETA, the Basque terrorist group.

Basques are used to being scapegoats. They are famous around the world for
two things: the Guggenheim Museum and bastards with bombs. In fact, Aznar's
government of the Partido Popular (PP) gained popularity in the rest of
Spain for the excessive brutality with which it suppressed the Basques. Not
just the terrorists themselves, but also the radical nationalist party
Batasuna, which was banned and immediately reformed under a different name
(they are used to this: the party has had at least four names in the past
decade), and the Basque-language daily newspaper, Egunkaria, many of whose
editors were arrested. The newspaper, too, has now reopened, this time as
Berria.

Remembering that Basques are not the only ones with bombs, and that Aznar
had stirred up some other known bombers by joining Bush's invasion of Iraq,
against the will of the Spanish population, it's easy to see that it would
be very convenient for the government if ETA turned out to be the bombers.

It looked as if this time they would get away with it. All the major
political parties were quick to express their grief and rage, condemning not
only the attacks but also ETA as the authors. On Thursday evening there were
spontaneous street demonstrations across Spain with placards denouncing ETA
and terrorism.

However, there were some odd things going on. One was the outright denial by
Batasuna, or whatever they're calling themselves this week, that ETA were
the perpetrators of the attack. Indeed, they condemned the attack in no
uncertain terms, and said that ETA didn't go around blowing up working-class
Spanish people. The others were the appearance of a letter from "Al Qaeda"
in a British Islamic newspaper claiming credit for the attacks, and the
discovery in Madrid, intentional on the part of the bombers, no doubt, of a
van containing detonators and tapes of the Koran.

Watching TV became slightly surreal on Thursday evening. The main state TV
channel, TVE-1, was looping footage of the attacks and the victims and
repeating the government's insistence that ETA was responsible. CNN news,
the Basque regional channels and the commercial station Tele-5, meanwhile,
were broadcasting the news about the "Al Qaeda" letter and the van. This
showed with crystal clarity the crucial role of a diverse free press in a
free country. Also the importance of access to a free press - because in
some parts of Spain TVE is the only television service available.

The news got out and on Friday the government line was looking a bit frayed.
Nonetheless, they kept hauling on it, with repeated insistences by the
Minister of the Interior - looking like a Charles Addams character in an
ill-fitting black suit - that ETA were still being considered as the prime
culprits. By Friday evening the confusion, grief and rage had reached
historical levels. The people of Spain, the Castilians and Catalans and
Basques and Galicians and Andalucians, did what free people do at times of
intense emotion. They took to the streets of the towns and the great
boulevards of the cities, in incredible numbers. Under cold, heavy rain,
one-quarter of the population came together as a river in flood. Ten million
people became A PEOPLE. They didn't push, they queued patiently, there were
no casualties as far as I have heard. They simply walked and shouted and
waved their banners. The messages had changed. On Thursday it was "ETA this"
and "ETA that". On Friday they were diverse and often poetical. "It isn't
raining: the sky is crying." "We are all Madrile?os." "Aznar, stop looking
for the weapons: they're on the train." "Who did it?"

Ten million people marching in peace to defend their democracy! You want to
see a free people? Look to the people of Spain. Here are a people who, in
living memory, have suffered a terrible civil war, forty years of brutal
dictatorship under Franco, and the miraculous restoration of democracy. Here
are a people who know the value of freedom. And may they be slow to forget
it, and quick to remind others of what they often take for granted.

Saturday is a day of reflection before the general election. No electoral
messages are permitted. This policy was honourably adhered to by the
Socialist leader, Zapatero, who said he trusted that the government were
revealing all they knew about the authorship of the attacks, leading me to
want to throw my shoe at the TV screen. The government, blatantly, were
doing nothing of the kind. In fact the scary Interior Minister kept
repeating desperately that ETA was the main suspect, and appeared to have
taken a vow not to let the words "Islamic terrorists" pass his lips.

Sunday dawned bright and clear after days of rain. A perfect day to vote. In
Spain, voting is a serious and semi-sacred business; people dress up as if
they're going to church. Supervising and counting the votes is a duty that
is given to members of the voting public drawn by lot, as with jury duty. As
it happens, my brother-in-law was one of those in charge of counting the
votes in his village. Everything is done using paper ballots: who would
trust a machine to register their vote?

The rest is history. We won. The people won. Peace and democracy won. Aznar'
s party, who a week ago looked certain to win, were kicked out of power. The
new government looks likely to be formed by a coalition of the Socialist
Party with the Catalan republican left (ERC) and United Left (IU) parties.
These parties will probably demand constitutional reform and the withdrawal
of troops from Iraq. Bush's occupation force just lost one of its members.

* * *

I live in a free country. Shame it isn't my country.

In Britain, an intelligence official, David Kelly, is dead. A journalist,
Andrew Gilligan, has had his career ruined and the head of the BBC, Greg
Dyke, has been forced to resign. All because they tried to tell the truth
about why Britain went to war with Iraq. The freedom of the press has been
on thin ice for years and has now plunged through into the chilly waters of
silence. If you want a free press in Britain now, you have two options:
Private Eye and the internet. Newsletters like SchNEWS and independent
websites like IndyMedia are free but few people have access to them. It's
not good enough just to have an independent press: the news must be able to
reach the people.

In the USA, the situation has never been worse. Corporations have a
stranglehold on the news that reaches the vast majority of the population.
They have already succeeded in rigging the selection process for the
Democratic Presidential candidate. Come November, it is now almost certain
that the voters will have a choice between President Bush, who invaded Iraq
and wants to stay there, introduced the Patriot Act which has butchered
civil liberties, supports the NAFTA and GATT trade pacts that have destroyed
million of jobs, has failed to fund education, and is in the pocket of
insurance companies who are milking the health industry; and Senator Kerry,
who voted for the invasion of Iraq and wants to send 40,000 more troops
there, who voted for the Patriot Act, who supports the NAFTA and GATT trade
pacts, who will have no money to fund education after paying the bill for
Iraq, and who is in the pocket of the insurance companies.

That's if they even have the choice, of course. Because now that many states
are introducing "voting machines", even the chance to vote is in doubt. When
I say "voting machines", let's be clear what I'm talking about: these are
machines that leave no paper trail, with software that nobody is allowed to
read or check and which can be altered by the company at any time, and which
are made by companies like Diebold that have strong ties to the Republican
party.

But there are encouraging murmurs even in the heart of the empire. One of
the best pieces of news from the North American continent this weekend came,
of all places, from Kansas.

Did you know that this Saturday Dennis Kucinich came second in the Kansas
presidential primary? Do you even know who Dennis Kucinich is, or that
Kansas had a presidential primary? Thought not. Kansas is the sort of place
that only produces news when a bunch of hicks on the school board decide to
ban evolution. Dennis Kucinich is the type of political candidate who only
makes the news when he decides to humour the media hacks by joining in some
silly dating game. Plus he's got a hard-to-pronounce name (it rhymes with
spinach) and well, hasn't Kerry won already?

Well, just so you know what you missed, Dennis Kucinich (www.kucinich.us) is
a four-term Congressman from Ohio who led the opposition in Congress to the
Iraq war and the Patriot Act. He proposes to withdraw troops from Iraq and
hand over power to the UN, repeal the Patriot Act, cut the Pentagon budget
by 15% to fund education, scrap NAFTA and GATT and create a national health
care system which would pay for itself by eliminating insurance company
profits. In other words, he offers the American people a genuine alternative
to Bush. Now you know why you've never heard of him.

Well, Dennis came second in Kansas, and if the American people know what's
good for them, they will make sure he starts winning primaries, starting
with Illinois on Tuesday. It's unlikely he will be able to take the
nomination from John Kerry, but he might make Kerry wake up and start to see
that if he doesn't offer a genuine alternative, he can't hope to defeat
Bush. If the Americans or the British want freedom, they'd better take a
leaf out of the Spanish people's book. Demand the truth. Demand fair voting
systems. Demand real alternatives. Demand access to a free press. Take to
the streets and speak out. March 20th is the international day of protest
against the war in Iraq, but every day is a good day to speak out for
freedom. It may be hard work but it beats being fed a pack of lies and told
to shut up and eat up.

Spain has show the way a free people must act when their freedom is
threatened whether by bastards with bombs or liars in high places. It has
also shown how quickly things happen when people start to speak out. So
speak out, America. Speak out, Britain. Speak out, you millions and billions
who dream of living in freedom. And I hope soon we can all say: I live in a
free country.

Robert Alcock, www.lesspress.com, 15 March 2004.
- posted by Daniel @ 5:20 AM

 
Riveting Rosie's Granddaughter:

It's a tough conundrum to watch Rosa,
As she's led off in chains,
Rosie the Riveter's great granddaughter,
Caught in a web no one would have thought possible.

You see,
The war came,
Fifteen countries got tired of being bossed from Washington,
And took to the high seas and and swift skies.

The bombs fell here in the good ol' USA,
Made in China and Taiwan,
Though neither of these countries touched a trigger,
A far different cry than a century ago.

The calls went out,
But there was no one to answer,
The bombs were all made in China,
The bullets were all made in Vietnam.

No one knew how to run the rusting machines,
American factories had been silent for over thirty years,
No bearings or bicycles or tank treads could be made,
The supply lines were impossible across the oceans.

Even if those countries had cared,
They were tired of the bosses in Washington,
And the Americans who voted for right wing hard-asses,
Every bomb they'd seen in the forty years prior...

Stamped with "Made in the USA" had all but disappeared,
And as the war progressed,
Survivors dressed in rags made in China graced internment camps,
As the spare parts for the tanks ran out.

It was impossible to ship bullets from Hong Kong,
And the Brits were besieged on their island,
The consolidated media companies were captured,
Long before they could show the pictures.

The invaders marched Rosa into the concentration camp office,
Paid no attention to the tears or screams,
They made on her the same wars,
That had for so long been stamped "made in the USA."

Take this peek from the future,
Understand we still make plowshares instead of swords,
But under NAFTA & the WTO,
While the factories rust and people forget how they ran,

Where will those hard rich hearts take us,
As they create a world they THINK is filled,
With masters and serfs?

Do our factories need to move over seas,
So we can't even make bullets and tanks and boots,
And does Rosa need to scream in the new Commandant's office,
Before we understand what "Made in the USA" really means?

AquarianM

By: Daniel A. Stafford
(C) 03/16/2004

Author's Comments:
Both morality and manufacturing are critical national security assets. Where is that recognized in these elections?
- posted by Daniel @ 4:01 AM

 
2004 Presidential Primary

Kucinich visits campus

By Tracy Douglas | Staff writer
Published Tuesday, March 16, 2004

Students walking around the Illini Union circle drive Monday night saw signs proclaiming "Hope Begins" above Dennis Kucinich's name. Kucinich addressed a packed room at the Union.

In pamphlets that greeted those at the lecture, Kucinich marketed himself as the "strategic choice." Citizens should vote for him so that his delegates can change the Democratic party platform. Kucinich said he was in the race to make sure there is a new direction for the country.

Supporters wore stickers saying, "Kucinich means change."

"We are never just observers. We are participants by the act of observation," Kucinich said. He said elections have to be about more than arm wrestling. They have to relate to what it means to be citizens.

(Full Story)


- posted by Daniel @ 2:49 AM

 
ENN Environmental News
E-mail Edition 03/15/2004

EarthTalk: How can I tell if something is made from old-growth wood?
"Old growth" is often defined as trees that have been growing for approximately 200 years or longer. The problem, according to the Rainforest Action Network (RAN), is that the lumber industry classifies trees by lumber grades, not age, and because old-growth wood provides the highest quality lumber, it is highly prized. Most old growth in this country is found in the Pacific Northwest and California.
http://www.enn.com/news/2004-03-16/s_13161.asp

Indonesia mulls death penalty for illegal loggers
Illegal loggers and corrupt officials who help them plunder vast tracts of virgin tropical forests may face the death penalty under a presidential decree to be issued next month, a senior an official said Monday.
http://www.enn.com/news/2004-03-16/s_14046.asp

E.U. needs to do more to protect Arctic, study finds
The European Union has to take immediate action to protect its Arctic region from environmental disaster, the United Nations and the European Environmental Agency said Monday.
http://www.enn.com/news/2004-03-16/s_14045.asp

Brazil struggles to slow Amazon destruction
Brazil unveiled long-promised plans Monday to stop destruction of the Amazon rainforest.
http://www.enn.com/news/2004-03-16/s_14039.asp

Coca-Cola suspends production from plant in southern India
American soft drink giant Coca-Cola suspended production at a south Indian plant on Monday, following a government order to stop using groundwater until monsoon rains start in June, a company official said.
http://www.enn.com/news/2004-03-16/s_14044.asp

Australia will seize vessels found illegally fishing, says government after court ruling
Foreign ships that fish illegally in Australia's Antarctic zone can now be seized after a court upheld a landmark ruling aimed at stopping poachers in the country's territorial waters, the federal government said recently.
http://www.enn.com/news/2004-03-16/s_14047.asp

Alleged ecoterrorist is arrested in Canada for 2001 arson of logging trucks
A fugitive radical environmentalist has been arrested on charges of setting fire to logging and cement trucks in 2001, the FBI announced Monday.
http://www.enn.com/news/2004-03-16/s_14043.asp

U.S. "tick rider" agents guard against Mexican cows
Federal agent Ken De Yonge rides the north bank of the Rio Grande River on horseback, hunting down illegal border crossers with a sharp eye, a sturdy rope, and a magnifying glass.
http://www.enn.com/news/2004-03-16/s_14041.asp

Neil Young tour is powered by vegetable oil
Neil Young wants to talk about vegetable oil.
http://www.enn.com/news/2004-03-16/s_14038.asp



Environmental Marketplace Updates (Become a Member)

We'd like to encourage you to visit our Environmental Marketplace where you'll learn about some amazing environmentally-focused businesses. A few examples:

Endangered Species Chocolate Company, a company created in an effort to raise environmental and social awareness. Using premium, all natural and organic chocolate as a medium for their message, the ESCC hopes to effect change in commerce and instill a sense of responsibility in consumers and the corporate world as well. Learn more about the Endangered Species Chocolate Company

G.A.P. Adventures, an exciting travel company that was born with a vision of travelling while respecting the land and her people. While others focus on attractions and creating a western environment, their vision is face-to-face travel at a grassroots level. Learn more about G.A.P. Adventures

ShoreBank Pacific, the first commercial bank in the United States with a commitment to environmentally-sustainable community development. Learn more about ShoreBank Pacific

University of California Press is the nonprofit publishing arm of the University of California. They publish and distribute a full spectrum of distinguished works. One such work is the recent photography book published by Sierra Club Books, "Urban Forest--Images of Trees in the Human Landscape" by David Paul Bayles. Learn more about UC Press/Sierra Club Books.

Worldwise, a leading supplier and brand of environmentally responsible consumer products that are changing the way Americans feel about the look, feel, price and performance of earth-friendly products. Worldwise is guided by the principle of sustainability--a step beyond conservation that maintains the planet's natural functions, resources and beauty. Learn more about Worldwise

Today's Press Releases (Become an Affiliate)
Direct from non-profit environmental and educational organizations.

The Trust for Public Land:
Key Cascade Foothills Parcel Protected (WA)

- posted by Daniel @ 2:48 AM

 
Still Candidate Kucinich

By John K. Wilson, The Indy
March 15, 2004

This interview with Democratic presidential candidate Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) took place on March 14, as he campaigned in Normal, Illinois before the Illinois primary.

The Associated Press is reporting that John Kerry has reached the majority of delegates he needs for the nomination. What do you hope to accomplish by continuing your campaign?

Dennis Kucinich: We know the direction of the nomination, but what remains to be seen is the direction of the Democratic Party. My candidacy is about influencing the direction of the Democratic Party, not just in this election, but long term. To have a party that stands for peace, for workers rights, human rights, and environmental quality in trade, and for universal health care.

Do you think you'll have an influence at the Democratic National Convention?

To me, that's a secondary question right now. I'm in this election all the way through to the convention. We'll take one phase at a time. I'm the only other candidate, I think, who is actively campaigning still. I'm going to continue to campaign.

Do you think the media's going to pay attention to you now that there's not officially a race?

Local media has been covering this campaign, and continues to do so. Whatever the national media does, as far as I'm concerned, is irrelevant. This campaign is continuing. I don't need the permission of the national media to run, I'm not seeking it, I didn't ask them to get in, whether they cover me or not is their problem, not mine.

The mainstream media seems to vacillate between mocking you and ignoring you. How much damage did the media do to your campaign?

I think I'm right on track to be an overnight success.

What do you think of Ralph Nader's independent candidacy?

Ralph Nader and I have known each other for 30 years. We've worked together on a lot of things. Our politics are obviously different. I'm inside the Democratic Party, he's not. I think that my candidacy has the potential to attract people who would otherwise vote for Ralph Nader. People who are concerned about the undue influence of corporate power in our political agenda, people who are concerned about illegal wars, people who are concerned about protecting the environment, people who are concerned about fair trade, all those people who are attracted to Ralph Nader are also attracted to my candidacy. So what I'm doing is keeping the potential alive to bring people inside the Democratic Party.

On the positions you mentioned, you seem to agree with Nader more than Kerry.

But just keep something in mind. The Democratic Party cannot win the White House without that constituency.

What would you say to voters in Illinois, and other safe states where a vote for Nader won't affect the presidential election?

Just about any Democratic nominee can count on 47%-48% of the vote. This election's going to be decided by fractions. The question is, in each state, who has the ability to attract progressive voters and mobilize them, and give them a reason to vote. I don't think people are ready to trade a Republican version of the war in Iraq for a Democratic version of the same. We have a long period of time for this argument to be played out. We're seven and a half months away from the general election. That's an eternity in politics. Anything can happen. So I'm staying on this trail right through to the election. So that takes us to July.

Do you plan to endorse John Kerry?

I'm in an active phase of a candidacy, so it's inappropriate for anyone to ask me that when I'm campaigning.

But all of the Democratic nominees agreed to endorse the winner.

We've already committed for the nominee.

Your home state of Ohio may be decisive in the fall election.

It is.

What do you think are the chances that Kerry can defeat Bush in Ohio?

I'm not going to go there. It's too soon.

What issues will Ohio voters care about for defeating Bush?

I think Bush is vulnerable on the war, because his administration lied to get us into a war. He's vulnerable on trade because we lost three million jobs, and he's actually accelerating these trade agreements. He's vulnerable on health care, with 43 million Americans without health care. He's vulnerable on Social Security. The Democrats are not going to be able to mobilize the support necessary to win the White House unless they have a progressive economic agenda. It's just not going to happen. It's not going to be enough to say, "Get rid of Bush." There's a point at which you have to offer people something. And there it becomes a question of what the Democrats stand for.

What is your argument against the argument of the DLC and pundits that you have to move to the center to win the election?

The center's a mythical place. The center of nowhere is what they're talking about. It's very interesting that the kind of academic political analysis based on ideology is insufficient for being able to guide the outcome of this election, because the essential analysis is an economic one, it's not an ideological one.

The economic analysis has to realize that wealth is being redistributed upward at a very quick rate. That the tax cuts have redistributed wealth upwards, that the war in Iraq is a redistribution of wealth upwards, that the $421 billion Pentagon budget is a redistribution of wealth upwards, that global corporate trades facilitates a redistribution of wealth upwards, that concentration of corporate power redistributes wealth upwards, that pollution represents a redistribution of wealth in the society.

The way that you mobilize people is to appeal to their practical aspirations for jobs, for housing, for health care, for education, for retirement security, and for peace. That's the ticket to this election. If the Democrats can do that, we win the White House. If we can't, we won't. There are no guarantees here. None at all. There will be a lot of shadow play and image thrusting, but it's not clear what anyone stands for yet. People really have to know that there's a crystal clear alternative, it's too soon to say if that's going to take shape.

That's why my candidacy gives the Democrats an opportunity, through the debate, an opportunity to assume some clarity about what we stand for. Maybe the Party will decide not to stand for what I'm talking about. But there will be clarity about where they stand because there will be somebody holding up some principles throughout the process of the next three months.

Do you expect John Kerry to continue holding debates with you?

No, I think that part's over. I don't anticipate that. Why would he want to do that?

It seems like this period of time is an opportunity to bring a lot more delegates in.

We're working on it. In the last 30 days, we've actually had one of the largest gains in delegates over the past 30 days.

What issues do you think will bring you more delegates?

The war, health care, trade, Patriot Act. Kerry was for the Patriot Act, and for the war, and for NAFTA, and for this corporate-type trade, and corporate-type health care. This, for me, is a demonstration of my commitment. How committed am I to these principles? There have been seven other candidates who have dropped out of the race. Each person has to demonstrate how committed they are. I'm showing how committed I am.

For the fall election, Noam Chomsky has said that he wouldn't be surprised if Bush pulls Bin Laden out of thin air?

(full Story)
- posted by Daniel @ 2:33 AM

 
Kucinich Still Stumping

Monday, March 15, 2004, 4:24 p.m.

By Eva Golterman
Illinois Radio Network

(Springfield, IL) -- Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich is stumping for votes in Illinois, even though John Kerry has already locked up the Democratic nomination.

Kucinich says he’ll stay in the race for president until after primaries are held in Illinois and the 16 remaining states.

The Ohio congressman spoke to a small group of supporters in Springfield, warning that Democrats won’t win the White House if they support keeping the U.S. military in Iraq.
- posted by Daniel @ 2:22 AM

 
From Alt Power digest at Yahoo! Groups...

Message: 4
Date: Mon, 15 Mar 2004 11:59:42 -0800 (PST)
From: Tosha27@webtv.net
Subject: Japanese Island May Adopt Hydrogen Economy...

http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2002/1223/290_print.html
Yakushima Island, south of Kyushu, Japan, is designated by the UN as a
world heritage nature preserve. An engineering executive aims to create
the world's first zero-emission, hydrogen-exporting economy.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\=============>



________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

Message: 5
Date: Mon, 15 Mar 2004 12:10:38 -0800 (PST)
From: Tosha27@webtv.net
Subject: Warren Buffett, Farmers Invest In Wind Power...

http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=nifea&&sid=akd3Lss8Xvbk
General Electric, Warren Buffett, Farmers Invest in Wind Power
Feb. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Corn and soybean farmer Roger Kas steps off his
red Massey Ferguson combine and gazes over his 1,800 acres, focusing on
his newest crop: windmills.
With corn prices 44 percent less than the 1996 peak, Kas would have to
take out bigger loans to buy seeds without the $30,000 he earns from the
two white metal poles topped with spinning blades that hum 20 stories
overhead.
``We´re looking at wind like just another cash crop,´´ said Kas, a
third-generation farmer in Pipestone, Minnesota. He sells as much as 1.5
megawatts of electricity -- enough to power about 1,200 homes -- from
the two 750-kilowatt, NEG Micon A/S wind- power generators to local
utility Xcel Energy Inc.
Farmers trying to make up for lower crop prices are joining such
investors in wind power as Warren Buffett and General Electric Co., the
biggest company by market value. Stocks of the three biggest publicly
traded wind-turbine makers, NEG Micon and Vestas Wind Systems A/S of
Denmark and Spain's Gamesa Corporacion Tecnologica SA, more than doubled
on average in the past year as governments tightened emission rules.
Worldwide wind-turbine sales exceeded $7 billion in 2003 and may double
in the next three years as U.S. government subsidies draw farmers and
power companies, the American Wind Energy Association trade group said.
The latest equipment generates about 10 times more energy than in the
early 1990s, making wind the cheapest renewable power source.
Federal and state tax incentives trim the cost of wind power to about 3
cents per kilowatt-hour, while natural gas-fired generation has tripled
to 5 cents per kilowatt-hour in the past 5 years. North American gas
demand is set to surpass supplies as soon as 2006.
Sales Rise
``Wind has become less of a scientific project and more of an energy
source,´´ said Steve Zwolinski, president of GE Wind Energy. The
unit of General Electric makes 1,000 turbines a year after buying Enron
Corp.´s wind-generation business in 2002 for $328 million. ``We see a
very strong market for the next decade´´ as oil costs rise, he said.
Wind power must overcome obstacles such as opposition from local
residents, a lack of utility lines and political debate. Congress in
November shelved an energy bill, putting $2 billion in wind projects on
hold. The bill would have extended for 2 1/2 years a tax-credit program
begun in 1992 that offered farmers last year a record 1.8 cents per
kilowatt-hour of wind power.
Global sales of wind turbines rose 36 percent on average in the five
years ended in 2002, the most recent industry figures, bringing
worldwide wind power capacity to more than 32,000 megawatts, Danish
researcher BTM Consult said. That's enough to supply 25.6 million U.S.
homes.
Return on Wind
MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co., a unit of Buffett's Omaha,
Nebraska-based Berkshire Hathaway Inc., plans to start building in Iowa
the world's biggest wind farm as soon as this year. The $323 million
project, on leased farmland, calls for generating as much as 310
megawatts from as many as 200 wind turbines.
Buffett conducts his power transactions through MidAmerican, in which he
bought an 80 percent stake in March 2000. Buffett and MidAmerican
executives who own the other 20 percent paid $2.05 billion in cash and
assumed $7 billion in debt. Buffett declined to comment and referred
questions to MidAmerican.
Iowa utility regulators agreed to let MidAmerican set rates to let the
company receive an annual return of as much as 12.2 percent on its $323
million investment, or $39.4 million a year, over the projected 20-year
lifespan of the wind farm. The company can apply for a rate increase in
the event that returns fall below 10 percent, said Jack Alexander,
MidAmerican's senior vice president of marketing and supply.
MidAmerican is using wind to comply with an Iowa requirement that
utilities in the state have 1,000 megawatts of generating capacity from
renewable sources by 2010. The wind farm will increase the state's
supplies of wind power by 66 percent, MidAmerican said.
Adjusting Speed
The company is waiting for Congress to renew tax credits before
beginning construction, Alexander said.
``We´ve got turbine contracts in place,´´ he said.
General Electric has had a better return making wind-power equipment
than MidAmerican expects from wind-power generation. General Electric,
based in Fairfield, Connecticut, said sales at its wind-turbine business
more than doubled last year to $1.2 billion. The company forecasts a 17
percent increase in sales to $1.4 billion this year and estimates profit
doubled to $100 million in 2003.
The company is building on industry improvements in turbine design, such
as the doubling of windmill heights to more than 300 feet in the past
decade, by making generators that adjust blade orientation and speed to
make more power from variable winds.
Germany, U.S. Lead
The adjustable-blade design, exclusive to General Electric, opens areas
to turbines such as the Northeast and southwestern U.S. that lack the
steady winds of the upper plains states, Zwolinksi said. ``We´ve
proven the technology,´´ he said.
The General Electric windmills are more difficult to maintain than
standard equipment, said Dan Juhl, who has helped set up dozens of wind
turbines, including the two on the Kas farm and 17 he owns across the
street. ``I won´t touch them,´´ he said.
Germany leads the world in wind-power capacity, with more than 12,000
megawatts, or 5 percent of its electricity, BTM said. Windmills
installed in the U.S. last year were capable of generating 1,700
megawatts, about four times the amount in 2002. The U.S., now capable of
generating 6,374 megawatts from wind, overtook Spain as holder of the
world's second-largest capacity.
Growth Limits
Denmark's Vestas has benefited most from the demand, with 22 percent of
global wind-turbine sales in 2002. Germany's closely held Enercon has an
18.5 percent market share, making the company the second-biggest by
sales, followed by NEG Micon, Gamesa and General Electric. Vestas shares
gained 174 percent in the 12 months ended yesterday, while Gamesa stock
rose 104 percent and NEG Micon shares climbed 77 percent.
Vestas Chief Executive Svend Sigaard said ``2003 was a big year and it
is clear that 2004 won´t be as big.´´ He declined to provide
specific estimates in an interview last week. He expects orders for
windmills to pick up with a renewal of federal tax credits in an energy
bill this year. NEG Micon and Gamesa declined to comment.
Wind-power has environmental and political limitations. Residents living
near some proposed turbine sites oppose building.
In Nantucket Sound off Massachusetts' Cape Cod, sailors and
environmentalists have opposed a plan by closely held power company Cape
Wind Associates to build this year 130 wind turbines that are 417 feet
tall to produce 420 megawatts. Turbines will reduce tourism and block
waterways, opponents say.
Tax Credits
Renewal of the U.S. tax credits, which expired Dec. 31, may come as soon
as next month when Congress plans to reconsider energy legislation, said
American Wind Energy Association President Randy Swisher. Wind power tax
credits were included in a bill introduced this month by U.S. Senator
Peter Domenici, a New Mexico Republican who is chairman of the Senate
Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
Some utilities are reluctant to pay market prices for an energy source
that runs only when the wind blows. Wind generators operate about 40
percent of the year, less than half the 90 percent of fossil-fuel
plants.
``When customers flip a switch they expect their lights to come
on,´´ said Michael Sullivan, a senior vice president at FPL Energy
Inc., the biggest producer of power from wind in the U.S. ``We can´t
guarantee that all the time with wind.´´
Only about 14 percent of the contiguous U.S. has wind capable of making
the turbines profitable, excluding unsuitable sites such as cities and
national parks, the U.S. Energy Department said. Wind generates 0.7
percent of U.S. power. To provide 20 percent of the nation's electricity
would require wind turbines covering about 0.6 percent of those 48
states. As a result, wind-power companies are turning to farmers for
land.
Cash for Farmers
Wind is the least expensive new source of electricity that doesn't burn
fossil fuel and is one of the easiest to develop, the U.S. Energy
Department says. That's one reason utilities such as Xcel Energy are
signing contracts to buy more wind power, said Price Hatcher, Xcel's
manager of renewable purchases.
Xcel Energy buys a total of 150 megawatts of electricity from farmers
with wind turbines that produce 2 megawatts or less and plans to
purchase 100 megawatts more from those family-owned generators by 2007,
Hatcher said.
The company plans a $160 million transmission grid upgrade that includes
a 90-mile, 345-kilovolt line to deliver wind power from southwest
Minnesota to Minneapolis starting in 2007.
Farms that lease land to developers such as MidAmerican and FPL rather
than buy the windmills receive as much as $5,000 a year for each
turbine.
``There´s a cash flow right out of the box´´ for farmers, said
Juhl. ``It´s a real family-farm saver.´´
School Fundraiser
Public schools in Iowa are joining Buffett and General Electric in
turning to wind power. The Eldora-New Providence school district in
Hardin County, Iowa, installed a turbine in 2002 that it expects will
generate 50 percent more electricity than the system needs. Alliant
Energy Corp., the owner of the local utility, agreed to buy the excess
power, contributing as much as $20,000 a year to the school system's
budget.
Some wind farms produce more power than surrounding systems can handle.
Wind farms in western Texas are capable of generating 997 megawatts of
power, while transmission lines can only carry 440 megawatts from the
region to more populated areas.
``Regular curtailments of wind generation will continue´´ until more
transmission is built, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas said in
an analysis of the transmission system completed last year.
Kas plans to add two more turbines to his Minnesota farm in the next
couple of years, making wind power his fastest-growing crop. After all,
he said, maintenance on wind turbines is less work than tilling,
watering or planting.
``It´s the easiest crop I´ve got,´´ he said.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Chris Martin in Chicago, or cmartin11@b...
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- posted by Daniel @ 2:15 AM

 
Dennis Talks About Setting a New Direction for the Democratic Party

Kucinich spoke Saturday at the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition meeting in Chicago, receiving a warm introduction from former Democratic presidential candidate Reverend Jesse Jackson. In a speech that brought the crowd to its feet, Kucinich said: "While the nominee for the upcoming election may be a foregone conclusion, what we stand for as the Democratic Party is not a foregone conclusion. We must be the party that stands for peace, for health care, for voting rights, and for social and economic justice." [See video and transcript of the speech]

KUCITIZENS ACROSS THE COUNTRY TO JOIN MARCH 20 DEMONSTRATIONS


On Saturday, March 20, Kucinich supporters will join with people all around the globe in taking to the streets to say YES to peace and NO to pre-emptive war and occupation. Dennis Kucinich will speak at one of the largest of these rallies, in New York City. Kucinich has a detailed ten-point plan to get the U.N. in and the U.S. out of Iraq within ninety days. On this Global Day of Action, a number of Kucitizens are going by bus from Cleveland to NYC - for more details about getting on board please contact Leatrice at 866-413-3664. On a local level, Kucinich supporters are also participating in rallies across the country. Contact your state coordinator to learn more about coordinating Kucinich delegations at local rallies. We urge all supporters to rise up, be seen and be heard at this large event and at other events being held around the world on March 20th. [Read more]

NEW ERIC BLUMRICH FLASH VIDEO EXPOSES SECRET U.S. NUCLEAR WARS




Go to http://www.kucinich.us/dkdu.html to see a brilliant new animation by Eric Blumrich on the U.S. military’s use of munitions containing radioactive depleted uranium (DU). Congressman Kucinich is holding a press conference today at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to detail little-known information about the nuclear content and life-threatening effects of U.S. munitions that are being used in Iraq and Afghanistan and which have been used in other military conflicts beginning with the 1991 Gulf War. Joining Kucinich will be Dr. Doug Rokke, PhD, retired Army combat officer, and one of the world's leading experts on the use of munitions containing radioactive depleted uranium.

MIKE PRING: YOU ARE MISSED



Late Friday night on his way home from closing the California campaign office in Corte Madera, campaign worker Mike Pring was fatally injured in a highway accident. Many in the campaign knew Mike and we are devastated by his loss. Responsible for Northern California campaign technology, Mike also had a passion for field organizing. Most of all, Mike just wanted the world to work. He trusted and operated from his heart with a gracious and compassionate spirit.

Here's a page for Mike

NEW MATERIALS AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD

We have a new issues page for [Space Exploration: http://www.kucinich.us/issues/space.php ] and [Haiti: http://www.kucinich.us/issues/haiti.php ]. PDFs are also available for printing out as flyers. Check our Downloads page regularly to find new materials (date of posting is recorded).

Contact us:
Kucinich for President
11808 Lorain Avenue - Cleveland, OH 44111
216-889-2004 / 866-413-3664 (toll-free)
http://www.kucinich.us


- posted by Daniel @ 2:06 AM

 
Kucinich vows to continue nominee campaign
By Jared L. Olar

Times staff writer

EAST PEORIA -- Despite the fact that Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry has secured more than enough delegates to ensure his place as the Democratic Party's nominee in this year's presidential race, U.S. Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich of Ohio says he is staying in the race.

"Today the news reports that Sen. Kerry has just gone over the top in delegate count. But what hasn't been settled yet is what the Democratic Party stands for," Kucinich told a group of reporters gathered Sunday afternoon for an impromptu press conference in a conference room of the United Auto Workers Local 974's union hall in East Peoria.

"I'm going to be continuing this campaign ... My campaign keeps the debate alive. It keeps people aware that there is a choice," Kucinich said.

On Saturday, the CNN Web site's delegate tally showed Kerry with the 2,162 delegates that he needs to become the Democrats' nominee, while Kucinich had only 23 delegates -- one from California, eight from Hawaii, nine from Minnesota and five from his home state of Ohio.

Kucinich came to East Peoria to address union members on health care and trade, two issues that he has made central to his campaign message. However, the union unexpectedly barred all members of the media from the meeting, alleging that a reporter was asking questions about upcoming contract talks.

Kucinich's campaign then hastily improvised a press conference, which took place after his speech to the union.

On the issue of health care, Kucinich proposes that the federal government take over and run all hospitals and clinics in the United States, a move he says will ensure universal free health care. He calls his plan "Medicare for All."

Among his positions on trade, Kucinich says he opposed international trade pacts and bodies such as the North American Free Trade Agreement and the World Trade Organization. He would have the U.S. return to older models of trade.

"NAFTA and WTO ought to be canceled, and we ought to get back to bilateral trade," he said.

Kucinich said the way we approach international trade today has encouraged the loss of American manufacturing jobs as employers seek cheap labor overseas, a trend he called a "race to the bottom."

"Our way of life is changing in America, and that's why we have to do something to stop the loss of manufacturing jobs," he said.

He also said that he would discourage the hiring of illegal immigrant workers by getting laws passed that give illegal immigrants the same job benefits and protections of U.S. labor law that all other workers enjoy.

Another plank of Kucinich's platform is the creation of a federal cabinet-level "Department of Peace," which he said would inculcate and promote Martin Luther King Jr.'s principle of nonviolence. He decried the fact that about half of the federal budget is devoted to military expenditures -- money he says would be better spent on education and other social programs.

"Where are (the Republicans) taking us? They're taking us to a place where it's all about war. It's all about and tax cuts for the wealthy ... The Defense Department is about preparing for war. Why don't we prepare for peace?" he said.

(Full Story)
- posted by Daniel @ 1:58 AM

 
Doug Moss
Publisher & Executive Editor
*****************************************
***Week of 3/14/04 EARTH TALK installment***:

EARTH TALK
From the Editors of E/The Environmental Magazine

Dear EarthTalk: How many of our rainforests are protected around the world?

--Adriano Adamson Paiva, Bahia, Brazil

Determining how much rainforest land is protected worldwide depends on how you define ?rainforest.? Researchers at the Worldwatch Institute in Washington, DC have identified three different types of rainforests. There are about 4.2 million square miles of tropical moist forest, of which just eight percent is protected, and 76,000 square miles of tropical mangrove forest, of which only nine percent is protected. And only five percent of the 300,000 square miles of the third type, tropical dry forest, is protected. And many of these forests are protected only on paper; in practice, they may not necessarily be safe from oil drilling, wood harvesting, cattle grazing and myriad other destructive uses.

Scientists and policymakers at the Switzerland-based World Conservation Union (IUCN) estimate that there are 44,000 ?protected areas? worldwide, covering over 13 million square kilometers--an area equivalent to the landmass of India and China combined. These areas, which include rainforests but which can also be agricultural lands, national parks, reserves, forested land, marine sanctuaries and more, cover about 10 percent of the Earth?s surface.

While the IUCN has documented more than 1,388 words or terms used to describe a ?protected area,? national park designation remains a common way to secure the future existence of a natural resource like a rainforest. Tumucumaque National Park in the Brazilian Amazon is the world?s largest protected tropical rainforest, covering 24,135 square kilometers.

CONTACTS: The World Conservation Union, +41 (22) 999-0001; www.iucn.org; Worldwatch Institute, (202) 452-1999, www.worldwatch.org; Rainforest Alliance, www.rainforest-alliance.org; Rainforest Action Network, (415) 398-4404, www.ran.org.

GOT AN ENVIRONMENTAL QUESTION? Send it to EarthTalk, c/o E/The Environmental Magazine, P.O. Box 5098, Westport, CT 06881; submit your question at www.emagazine.com; or e-mail us at earthtalk@emagazine.com.

******************************************************************************************************************
EARTH TALK
From the Editors of E/The Environmental Magazine

Dear EarthTalk: I have been searching for an environmentally friendly way to repel moles from my home without killing or harming them. Any suggestions?
-- Elizabeth Powell, Marion, OH

Having moles in your yard is not necessarily detrimental. According to Bill Adler, author of Outwitting Critters: A Humane Guide for Confronting Devious Animals and Winning, moles eat destructive creatures like Japanese beetles and grubs, and aerate the soil by tunneling, thus bringing subsoil close to the surface. Moles themselves do not eat plant matter. Most likely, plant damage is done by the vegetarian vole, or by mice.

However, mole-tunneling activity can cause significant cosmetic damage to a well-manicured lawn. There are some mole-friendly ways to urge them to take their digging elsewhere. Gardens Alive! makes an eco-friendly spray called Mole-Gopher Med Repellent. Made from castor oil that you apply directly into mole holes about once every two months, the product releases a harmless smell that annoys moles, encouraging them to leave. One-pint bottles are good for a 5,000-square-foot application ($17).

Critter-Repellent.com offers Shake Away, a 100-percent natural pellet treated with a mixture of bobcat, coyote and fox urine that will also deter rodents from your yard: $15 for a 20-ounce bottle.

A physical barrier to try: Surround a cherished garden with an underground barrier of compacted soil and stones about one foot wide and two feet deep. A one-foot-high fence will prevent the moles from walking over the barrier.

CONTACTS: Gardens Alive!, (513) 354-1482, www.gardensalive.com; Critter-Repellent.com, (866) 802-8837, www.critter-repellent.com.

GOT AN ENVIRONMENTAL QUESTION? Send it to EarthTalk, c/o E/The Environmental Magazine, P.O. Box 5098, Westport, CT 06881; submit your question at www.emagazine.com; or e-mail us at earthtalk@emagazine.com.

EarthTalk
Questions and Answers About Our Environment
A Weekly Column
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- posted by Daniel @ 3:47 AM

 
Monday, March 15, 2004

Democrat plans to keep pushing ideas

By Laura Rineer
clerk@pantagraph.com

BLOOMINGTON -- With John Kerry already clinching the Democratic presidential nomination, many people are left wondering why Dennis Kucinich keeps campaigning.

"The outcome of the nomination has been decided, but the platform has not been," Kucinich said at the Carpenter's Union Local No. 63 Hall on Sunday night. "I'm still campaigning to keep the debate going."

The crowd at the Carpenter's Hall clapped and cheered throughout his short speech encouraging people to stand behind him on issues such as health care and rights for the working class.

Although Kucinich said he and Kerry differ on major issues, his main concern is "putting together an effective coalition to get a Democrat in the White House."

(Full Story)
- posted by Daniel @ 2:45 AM

 
Help The Democratic Party Take A stand:

HEAR THE AUDIO POSTCARD

EVENING OF MARCH 14, 2004

TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO POSTCARD:



Hi Everyone, this is Dennis. I'm on the road right now. In the last couple of days we've been all over the State of Illinois. We started off in Chicago, and went to Aurora, and we've been through Rockford, and Galesburg, and now Peoria, and we're making our way across the state in preparation for the primary coming up on Tuesday.

I want you to know that the commitment of this campaign is as steadfast as ever. And while it may seem that the nomination process is pretty much a foregone conclusion, what the Democratic party stands for is not. And so we're continuing our efforts to press for a new approach in Iraq, where we can bring in U.N. peacekeepers and bring our troops home. To press for a universal, single-payer, not-for-profit health care system, and to finally get the Democratic party to take a strong position for fair trade, which will mean the end of NAFTA and the WTO.

This campaign is moving forward because we realize the hopes and dreams of so many Americans for a new direction rest on a continuing debate, and we're going to provide that debate. I want to thank each and every one of you for all of the efforts that you've made, for the continued effort you're making on the ground and in the campaign states ahead, and for the effort that you've been making in helping to raise the funds that sustain our campaign.

We're moving ahead with all due speed, and all due courage, and with all due respect for Senator Kerry and his campaign. Because in the end, when all is said and done, if the Democrats are going to win the White House it must be because we stand for something, and it is this campaign which will help the Democratic party take a stand.

Thank you very much. I look forward to hearing from all of you, and I'm back on the road.

Dennis Kucinich

***
Contribute by calling 866-413-3664 or online at http://www.kucinich.us/contribute.php or by sending your check to the address shown at the bottom of this page.

Contact us:
Kucinich for President
11808 Lorain Avenue - Cleveland, OH 44111
216-889-2004 / 866-413-3664 (toll-free)
http://www.kucinich.us

- posted by Daniel @ 2:23 AM

 
Dennis Talks About
Setting a Direction for the Democratic Party
Introduction by Reverend Jesse Jackson

Windows: Modem
Audio Only (mp3)

[Also see the report from WBBM Radio]

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:

Reverend Jesse Jackson: I want you all to hear something real, real basic about this campaign: no matter what the polls say, no matter what the polls say, George Bush has the inside track. They stole the election without the White House; they can control it with the White House. We must overwhelm the machinery on Election Day, but I do not want to ever mislead you, because we can win and still lose unless we change assumptions. If you get the flipside of the same nickel, you have not won.

In slavery times there were liberals and conservatives. Conservatives said, "Treat the enslaved as you want; they are property." Liberals said, "Don't treat them bad; I want to go to heaven." But both liberals and conservatives were for slavery. Abolitionists was another coin. I have no interest in the liberal side of a right-wing coin. We need another coin. We need another proposition. Y'all hear what I'm saying?

I want to express my thanks to Dennis today for being in the race, and for assuming the burden of saying "you make the most sense, but you can't win". I heard that. Every now and then, sense ought to count in these campaigns. And even if sense is a minority it's going to let its light shine anyhow. You might go along with darkness -- darkness is popular -- but if this room was totally dark and someone lit one candle you would be saved by the power of the light, not by the size of the darkness. Can I get a witness here?

Somebody has got to make sense about Iraq, about Haiti, about the federal right to vote. See, no matter what the count is I hear somebody saying that no good thing will be lost if you do the Lord's work and do it right. And so, Dennis Kucinich, your work in this campaign has not been lost; keep speaking truth against the odds. A big hand for Dennis Kucinich from Cleveland, Ohio, the congressman! On your feet. Show your respect and your appreciation for Dennis Kucinich.

Dennis Kucinich: Thank you very much Reverend Jackson, my colleague, Congressman Jackson. Happy birthday to you and your daughter. Since we're all in a birthday mood, let me share that I come to the microphone with a distinction of my own in that regard. I happen to share the same birth date with Reverend Jackson, October 8th. So the stars were in alignment on October 8th -- 1941 in his case and 1946 in mine. But I was close behind.

I like to feel that the things I bring to this presidential race are also close behind, traveling in the powerful wave Reverend Jackson created for democrats years ago when he said “keep hope alive.” And that wasn't true just for that one convention: it was true for all the conventions we would hold, and it's certainly true for 2004. Because while the nominee for the upcoming election may be a foregone conclusion, what we stand for as the Democratic Party is not a foregone conclusion. We must be the party that stands for peace, for health care, for voting rights, and for social and economic justice.

If justice is in fact to be the measuring line, then let us draw the line here at Push today, because we shouldn't have to choose between a Republican version of the war in Iraq and a Democratic version of the war in Iraq. We have to stand for peace. We have to stand for connecting with the world community. And we have to bring our troops home.

It's time for us to realize that when the President of the United States us took this country into a war, we were taken into that war based on a lie. We were told that Iraq had attacked us. It had not. We were told that Al Qaeda had something to do with Sadam Hussein. This also turned out to be untrue. We were told that Iraq had something to do with the anthrax attack. Not so. In fact Iraq had neither the capability nor the intention to attack the U.S. Iraq wasn’t trying to get uranium from Niger. And Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction.

Reverend Jackson, I was mayor of the City of Cleveland, and I could have helped George Bush find weapons of mass destruction. All Bush needed to do was to come to the neighborhoods of any city in America; we could have helped him find all sorts of weapons of mass destruction. Because poverty is a weapon of mass destruction! Homelessness is a weapon of mass destruction! Joblessness is a weapon of mass destruction! Poor health care is a weapon of mass destruction, poor education is a weapon of mass destruction, and racism is a weapon of mass destruction! We have weapons of mass destruction here at home that we have not taken care of; that we have not disarmed. We have to address these things here at home before we go around the world looking for dragons to slay.

We're talking about the essential mission of government -- and John Kerry is going to need a lot of help. He may not be able to say the things he needs to say, so we need to say the things that must be said. We need to present the issues. We need to set the priorities of our party, and we need to set a direction for the Democratic Party, so when people come in November they’ll be lining up outside the polls. We need to set a direction for the Democratic Party so there will be so many people lining up to vote that it will be a like a mighty wave come to sweep this administration out of office -- a tidal wave for social and economic justice.

So I'm in this race all the way through to New Jersey and beyond. I'm in this race for peace. I'm in this race for health care. I'm in this race for jobs. I'm in this race to do everything I can to raise the level of the debate. I'm in this race, Reverend Jackson, to take the principles that you've worked your life for -- the principles that Dr. Martin Luther King stood for – and to create with them a cabinet-level Department of Peace where we can make non-violence an organizing principle in our society. What do we stand for? It's time to do away with war. It's time to do away with war and start to put a peace dividend back into our communities.

I want to thank you, Operation Push. I want to thank you for what you stand for. I want to thank you for keeping the dream alive. I want to thank you for helping to keep a catalyst for change in the Democratic Party. And I pledge to you that I'm going to stay the course. I'm going to run. I'm going to run strong, and I'm going to run hard. I'm going to run for justice. And I'm going to carry that banner for peace right into the convention. I'll be there right next to you. We'll go in together!

Thank you very much.
- posted by Daniel @ 1:43 AM

 
Kucinich to reveal details of secret U.S. nuclear wars
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 14, 2004


WHAT: Press conference
WHO: Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich and Dr. Doug Rokke, PhD
WHERE: University of Illinois, Champaign Campus, Illini Student Unit, Pine Room
WHEN: Monday, March 15th, 7:00 PM

Champaign, Ill. ­ Democratic Congressman and presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich will hold a press conference Monday to detail little-known information about the nuclear content and life-threatening effects of U.S. munitions that are being used in Iraq and Afghanistan and which have been used in other military conflicts beginning with the 1991 Gulf War.

Joining Kucinich will be Dr. Doug Rokke, PhD, retired Army combat officer, and one of the world's leading experts on the use of munitions containing radioactive depleted uranium (DU). He served as a member of the U.S. Army Medical Command's Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical (NBC) special operations and teaching team during the Gulf War. He is a confirmed casualty of poisoning by DU, which has a half life of 4.5 billion years.

Kucinich is expected to discuss the devastating health consequences suffered by American servicemen and women and their families and by civilians in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kosovo, Serbia, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere because of DU munitions used by the U.S. and other nations.

Kucinich is also expected to outline a plan to provide medical testing and care to all military personnel, veterans and others who have been exposed, as well as demand that the U.S. and other responsible governments perform complete environmental remediation wherever military forces have used DU munitions.

"Depleted uranium weapons are an unacceptable threat to life, a violation of international law, and an assault on human dignity," says Kucinich. "We have an obligation to do what is right for our servicemen and women, for our children and our grandchildren, and for all citizens of the world. We must ban the use of depleted uranium in our military and worldwide; we must provide medical care to all DU casualties; and we must clean up all the places where we’ve used this poison that has the power to kill for countless generations, far into the future."

Contact: Matt Harris (o) 216.889.2004, (c) 216.403.3980,
press@kucinich.us; Nate Wilkes 602.221.6598

For information about the National campaign: http://www.kucinich.us

To schedule an interview with Kucinich or spokesperson: jonathans@kucinich.us

For information about the Illinois Kucinich campaign: Diego Alvarado,
309-275-5070, MrDiegoAlvarado@aol.com

For Rep. Kucinich's Schedule: http://www.kucinich.us/schedule.htm.



Contact us:
Kucinich for President
11808 Lorain Avenue - Cleveland, OH 44111
216-889-2004 / 866-413-3664 (toll-free)
- posted by Daniel @ 1:39 AM

 
My heart is somewhat heavy posting this - yet I am glad for the things I have espoused here, the ideas my chosen candidate has put forth. In the spirit of open and honest discussion of the issues, I will still vote in the primary, and I will still vote for Dennis Kucinich. May we all learn to understand the reasoning behind his ideas, and act on them courageously, for peace, for the betterment of all the world.

Dan

Published Sunday, March 14, 2004

Kerry secures bid

Senator had enough delegates before Kansas Democrats met.

"But Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich, the only other active candidate who filed in the Kansas caucus, put together a strong showing Saturday, bolstered by a feisty group of supporters.

Kucinich finished second with 10.2 percent support, followed by North Carolina Sen. John Edwards with 8.7 percent and Dean with 6.7 percent. Former NATO commander Wesley Clark finished with 0.7 percent."

(Full Story)


- posted by Daniel @ 1:21 AM

 
The Silence of Rain:

In the dead of night,
Long before I can rest my weary head,
The sound of rain falling,
Leads me into thoughts of nothing at all,
Television glaring old movie angst,
Will my heart ever wake up,
From the silence of the rain.

It seems people don't care any more,
What the world really is,
Does he look like some movie star,
With a face more famous than a name,
What's underneath those eyes,
Is a vacuum in a fog,
When sincerity and caring are backed up to the wall.

Then suddenly I remember,
The stars will come back out,
Even though the lights of the city hide them pretty well,
Make their connect the dot picture show,
Forever across the sky crawl,
Inspire a billion sages,
Whisper a trillion new songs.

In the dead of night I understand,
The rain isn't silent,
I hear each lovely note,
And until the stars shine up again,
Eyes can only open one pair at a time,
The wheel is turning as always,
Soon will be the right place right hearts right time.

Funny how the sounds so pervasive are silent,
Pour down what eventually touches everyone,
So go ahead and drink your fill,

I'm standing in the silence of the rain.

AquarianM

By: Daniel A. Stafford
(C) 03/14/2004

Author's Comments:
I don't know quite what it is about a rainy night, but it makes me look inside.
- posted by Daniel @ 2:10 AM