June 19, 2001
Miscellaneous Subjects 92: 1. Helping the orphans of Ukraine + 2. Summer university in the South of Portugal + 3. Naomi Klein on Globalization and Resistance + 4. SMELLS LIKE PEW SPIRIT & FLOOD, SWEAT, AND TEAR + 5. Muslim Cleric Healed of AIDS + 6. IMPORTANT Chemtrails development + 7. Joke
Hello everyone
Yet another compilation put together in the midst of plenty of summertime activities.
Enjoy!
Jean Hudon
Earth Rainbow Network Coordinator
http://www.cybernaute.com/earthconcert2000
P.S. News of interest to check - if you are so inclined:
U.N. United in AIDS Fight but Split Over What to Do
Nations are divided among hundreds of different views on how to approach the AIDS epidemic and how to spend the money promised for a global AIDS fund.
http://partners.nytimes.com/2001/06/27/world/27AIDS.html
U.S. Troops Escort Rebels, Setting Off a Riot in Macedonia
A huge riot erupted in Macedonia's capital after American troops escorted hundreds of Albanian rebels away from a town that has been the most recent flashpoint.
http://partners.nytimes.com/2001/06/26/world/26MACE.html
1.
I RECOMMENDED THE FOLLOWING WEBPAGE IN THE LAST COMPILATION BUT BELIEVE THIS WONDERFUL INITIATIVE FROM TONY BUDELL - WHO HAS BEEN ON THE ERN LIST FOR QUITE SOME TIME - DESERVES AS MUCH EXPOSURE AND SUPPORT AS POSSIBLE. YOU MAY REMEMBER 2 PREVIOUS ARTICLES BY TONY I NETWORKED HERE SUCH AS "The rape of the Virgin Mary" POSTED AT http://www.cybernaute.com/earthconcert2000/RapeVirgin.htm AND "Just five minutes more" POSTED AT http://www.cybernaute.com/earthconcert2000/MiscelSubjects59.htm
From: http://www.simedia.org/new/helping_orphans.html
Helping the orphans of Ukraine
Tony Budell, founder of British Humanitarian Aid, has been taking convoys of humanitarian supplies to children in the Ukraine. June 2001
The year 2001 marks the 15th anniversary of the world’s worst nuclear disaster — at Chernobyl, and still the people of the Ukraine are suffering from the effects. Tony Budell, founder of British Humanitarian Aid (BHA), has been taking aid-convoys to the Balkans since 1984 and later to the Ukraine; by May 2001, he has already taken three convoys to the Ukraine since January.
BHA has set up a community centre, ‘Aratta’, in Chernigov, 25 miles from Chernobyl. The centre has become a lifeline for the poorest families in the area. For example, a widow left with six grandchildren after the death of her daughter received assistance from Aratta, which meant that the children did not have to enter an orphanage. Many of those who come for help would end up as beggars or prostitutes on the streets without Arrata’s help.
BHA supports three orphanages which are all “set in forest-land miles from the nearest village ... under Soviet dominance such places were situated out of the public gaze,” says Tony Budell. There is Timki, which houses 60 physically and mentally handicapped children aged from 5-16 years, whose total needs are provided by Aratta; Stara Bassan, an orphanage for 170 children from 5-15 years; and Zamgli, which houses 127 physically and mentally handicapped girls, some as young as two and the oldest 24 — where the older girls touchingly care for the younger ones without ever having been taught.
BHA is providing clothing, footware, food, vitamins, toiletries, toys and educational items for these centres. Especially needed are wheelchairs for the disabled children.
Tony Budell is planning a summer holiday to the Black Sea for as many children as he can to give them a break from the effects of nuclear contamination in the area. “The holidays extend their life expectancy, health prospects and sense of well-being,” says Tony Budell.
For further information, contact: British Humanitarian Aid,
c/o Rev. Tony and Valerie Budell,
11 Devon Road, Canterbury, Kent, CT1 1RP, UK
Tel: 01227 453434; fax 01227 787728;
e-mail: <BHA@netcomuk.co.uk>
2.
THIS SHOULD BE OF INTEREST TO MANY PEOPLE IN EUROPE
From: "Barbara Kovats" <B.Kovats@gmx.net>
Subject: Summer university in the South of Portugal
Date: Fri, 22 Jun 2001
Open Air Summer University - 6th - 17th August 2001
Female Knowledge for Peace and the Healing Biotopes Project
Peace Camp and Political Retreat in Tamera, Portugal
Is there a realistic concept for an end to the violence on earth? This question is meant seriously. Faced with the global escalation of violence and destruction we should act swiftly while there is still room to introduce developments for a global peace.
If those of us whose hearts long for this new opportunity for peace come together in a place far from the indifference and hustle and bustle of the big city and if we use this break from the usual habits of consumerism and continual distractions to live a simple lifestyle and concentrate on the essentials, then we should find a deep interconnectedness which will give rise to the new decisions.
We invite you to a Political Retreat. It will take place in the emerging Healing Biotope 1 Tamera - a planetary futurist settlement for a new global culture of peace. The Summer University is also the meeting point for a new "Movement for a Free Earth" and this year has as its central theme "Female Knowledge for Peace".
The subjects:
- The establishment of the network "Movement for a Free Earth".
- New professions in the establishment of a global peace culture.
- Love's power to survive.
- Planetary centres and communities.
- Eros and Healing.
- Youth Day - the Youth School for Global Learning.
- Animals Day - Co-operation with Nature's beings.- Actions against the exploitation of animals.
- Earth Day - Geomancy and healing the Earth. The Earth as an organism.
- The formation of a women's peace ring for conflict resolution in crisis areas.
Speakers:
Gloria Cuartas, Peace Mayor from Colombia,
Advaita Maria Bach, sexual therapist,
Hans de Boer, preacher, peace activist, witness of history,
Dieter Duhm, director of the Peace School Mirja and co-founder of Tamera
Scilla Elworthy, antinuclear lobbiyst, Oxford Research Group
Gill Emslie, spiritual director at Findhorn, conflict resolution worker in
Mexico (participation promised),
Tatyana Ginzburg, Peterburg, holistic network
Eluan Ghazal, philosopher and belly-dancer,
Heide Göttner-Abendroth, researcher into matriarchy,
Sarah Hassel, Intersexuality in different cultures,
Laura Livoti, eco-feminist, peace journalist,
Wam Kat, Balkan Sunflowers,
Judith Keshet, Bat Shalom women's peace group, Israel,
Maria Mangte, representative of India's native peoples,
Manitonquat, story-teller, spiritual leader of the Wampanoag First People
Jürgen Paulick, founder of the "Peace Garden" project, Tamera
Marko Pogacnik, landscape healer from Slovenia
Barbara Rütting, author, animal rights activist (participation promised, t.b.c.),
Tü!Tü!, peace pilgrim, "Giver" movement,
Sabine Lichtenfels, author, theologican, and co-founder of Tamera, is host of the event.
plus representatives of various networks, futurist projects and liberation movements.
Special Event: Concert and Satsang with Nina Hagen
Further information:
We will have a very simple, elementary lifestyle, enabling us to concentrate on the essentials. This also applies to the catering: meals will be in the main vegan. There will be a programme of speeches, discussion groups, meditations and possibilities for practical work. Some speakers will offer seminars. Participants can present their projects in the "Market of Possibilities". The participation fee, incl. food and accomodation is 1100 DEM. We especially welcome participants up to 25 years of age for whom the fee is 400 DEM.
Info: Tamera, Monte Cerro, P-7630 Colos, 00351-283-635306; Fax: -635374;
email: tamera@mail.telepac.pt, internet: http://www.tamera.org
LATER ON BARBARA WROTE:
Dear Jean Hudon,
Thank you for your mail. I`m looking forward to the news from the Earth Rainbow Network, I will see then, what could be the a possible cooperation.
For me, your newletter for the meditation focus was very interesting, as I was positively surprised about the combination of political and spiritual information. We made it public in our magazine of the IGF (Institute for Global Peace Work) - hopefully some of our readers went to your homepage.
I greet you warmly and wish you a beautiful day.
Barbara Kovats
http://www.tamera.org
3.
THIS IS LONG BUT IT'S A GOOD RECAP/ANALYSIS OF THE ANTI-GLOBALIZATION. ANTI-NEOLIBERALISM MOVEMENT
Date: Wed, 27 Jun 2001
From: Ricardo Ocampo-Anahuak Networks <chicanos@prodigy.net.mx>
Subject: You can act right now, at home / Naomi Klein on Globalization and Resistance / Zapatistas and Indigenous People in Mexico
Naomi Klein's Conference in Mexico City on Globalization and Resistance Interview and related web sites below
14/03/01
I've been very privileged to go protest hopping over the past year, it's a little bit like following the Grateful Dead. I have a distorted view of the world because every time I enter a city it's filled with revolutionaries taking to the streets.
But never have I seen anything like Mexico City on Sunday.. what was wonderful about Sunday was to see the support in the city among workers and families and to see the integration of this movement in every aspect of life. Too often the protestors are seen as out-of-towners who come to a city and there isn't that integration, which is a disappointment.
I'm going to talk about the movement, even though there's no movement, there's movements, many movements.. and they converge and explode every once in a while like in Prague, then they disperse and we wonder are we going crazy?
It's fitting to talk about this in DF, some say it began in Seattle, others say it began 500 years ago, but I think in many ways we can trace this new wave of resistance, of direct action to January 1st 1994.
When I picture all these networks of activists I imagine not a pyramid but a web, it's almost like the Internet come to life. I think that when we think what this Movement of Movements stands for, the task is to identify the threads that connect this web.
The most powerful thread that unites this movement of movements is the reaction to the privatization of every aspect of human life and by privatization I don't just mean the privatization of education and healthcare but more broadly the privatization of ideas, the commodification of images, even in the way Zapatismo is being comercialized here in Mexico.
Powerful ideas turned into advertising slogans, generations of young people target-marketed from birth. And we see previously public spaces opened up to commercialism and advertising; US schools allowing in Pepsi, McDonalds, Nike etc.. We're also talking about the privatization of water, human life and genes, and of seeds being bioengineered by corporations like Monsanto.
This privatization is felt around the world from university campuses to indigenous communities, where lands stolen by colonialism are now handed over to agribusiness, which is why we felt that agrarian reform is the unfinished business of this era.
This privatization, the agenda is getting deeper and deeper, with the first glimpses of ALCA and next round of WTO, with side agreements about GATT and TRIPS, access to patents, even more devastating in Africa in the midst of the AIDS crisis.
I try not to use acronyms but this movement is also about citizens forcing their way into this maze of acronyms, inside a system designed to make all of us feel we were sick the day everyone else learned the meaning of these terms.
The way we find our way into this maze is through personal connections to globalization, almost doorways that make globalization accessible to us.. it's different in different countries.
In Europe it's all about food, because through the food scares that are going on right now, diseases that have entered the food chain, people are thinking about the centralisation, the industrialisation of the food they put in their children's mouths.
In the US and Canada, the doorway into the maze of acronyms have been the brand names that so aggressively targeted young people. Student anti-sweatshop campaigns grow because companies like Nike sponsor the schools then the students research.and make links, creating. an activist web to mirror the corporate web.
So far the focus among students has been injustice in other countries not in the US, that is starting to change, thank goodness.
In Florida, two weeks ago, I met some workers, mostly from Mexico, picking tomatoes in Florida, they had no no rights, they were not allowed to form unions. Living in the land of the free, and they haven't got a raise in 20 years. they live 10 workers to a single trailer and haven't been able to negotiate directly with their employers, so they started to research who the biggest buyers were of the tomatoes, and they found out the biggest buyer was Taco Bell.
Now we have a big 'Yo No Quiero Taco Bell" campaign (I don't want Taco Bell).
While it's easy to say what the movement is against, It's harder to say what the Movement is for..
The truth is that no one can answer that question, the movement is too diverse to have any one person or one organisation to speak for it. But I'm going to try, joking
Is this an anti-globalization movement at all? What I see is a fiercely internationalist movement, that is not globaphobic at all, what this is really about, (there is disagreement whether globalization is inherently wrong), what is most inspiring here in Mexico is that what you are doing here is forcing the discussion to be about democracy.
This word globalization is very imprecise, neoliberalism is more precise, I also use the word McGovernment, like McDonalds it believes we should have the same government everywhere in the world, which is tax cuts, privatise, liberalise and pray to the Gods of trickle-down economics. So when every government in the world is told that they have to follow one single economic recipe- that is not democracy.
In the lead up to ALCA we should insist that this is not about trade or globaphobia but about using trade, the incentive, the carrot of trade to enforce turbo-capitalism. These are the pre-conditions to successful trade, to be trade-ready, trade-friendly. In some countries it's more subtly enforced through the bond market, (Stock Market) OECD, in other countries it's enforced with a hammer by the IMF.
The real issue is not trade but the strings and conditions attached to trade, that lead to the loss of self-determination, power, control and democracy, it's bundled along with it like Microsoft software. Back in Seattle, the guy taking down the letters NIKE, (from the Nike Town shop front), if you looked closely he was wearing Nike shoes. The press had a field day,'Look at these hypocrites, they love trade yet they protest.'
I don't see any contradiction because I don't see this as about consumer politics, it's about real politics. The question is not are you for or against trade the question is do we have the right to negotiate the terms of our relationship with capital inside our countries and with foreign capital.
And as we've seen with all the NAFTA chap 11 cases, (court of arbitration) the answer is that we seem to have traded away that right. The strongest example is Metalplad, (check name), which sued the Mexican government for $16.7 million, because of the decision not to have a hazardous waste dump.
This question of democracy is the same issue around the world in these trade disputes, Jose Bove, became famous for strategically dismantling a McDonalds in France, people thought he just didn't like hamburgers, but of course this action was taken because France had attempted to ban hormone-treated beef from America and there was retaliation against French farm exports.
Too often the connections on how globalization plays out on the ground, rejecting a dump, or whether we trust food, these connections are not made by the people.
Which is why it's helpful to think of this movement of movements as being about big protests in Seattle, Prague or Mexico City, it's about thousands of local struggles, that are dealing hands-on with neoliberalism as it is played out on the ground.
Issues like clean water, homelessness, police violence, people talk about creating some big political party, a single global movement with a cabal of leaders promoting their one-size fits all ideology to do battle with the other guys from Davos with their one-size fits all ideology.
What the Zapatistas have taught so many people is that what we really need is an international political framework that encourages, celebrates and fiercely protects the right to diversity. Ecological diversity, cultural diversity, agricultural diversity and yes, even political diversity, different ways of doing politics, a world with a possibility of many worlds in it.
Thousands of local movements founded on principles of participatory democracy, when we talk about globalization, we're talking about a crisis in representative democracy, the systematic delegation of authority to points further and further away from where we live and where those decisions are felt.
From local to state, state to national, national to international, until democracy is voting for a guy in a tie.
At the World Social Forum (WSF) in Porto Alegre, there was a real tension within this so-called movement about what to do with this so-called crisis in representative democracy, some people said we need to democratise world government and some people said we need more transparency at the WTO, others said the only way to respond to the international crisis in representative democracy is participatory democracy at the local level… I think we're already seeing this with the spirit of radically reclaiming space from corporations and the Mc Government neoliberal model.. In the US students kick ads out of their classrooms, in Europe there are huge Reclaim The Streets (RTS) parties.
In Thailand, a movement of people plant organic vegetables on golf courses, in Bolivia, citizens rejected the privatization of water, the billboard liberation front In Canada plus space reclaimed in the Internet even as the Internet is turned into another shopping mall. The Indymedia centres, and even the late Napster, young people who grew up with every aspect of their culture commodified, trading art and music with each other, instead of buying.
What this has to do with the Zapatistas, the message of the Zapatistas to young people, is that you don't have to wait for the revolution to act, you can act right now, at home.
Gracias.
Sesión de preguntas, Q y A
It's dangerous to generalise, better to insist on a movement of movements. We're not talking about exporting what's happening in Europe to a counry like Mexico.
What happened in Seattle is that for the first time in America in the heart of global capitalism, we saw workers and students joining a movement that was coming from the global south and not the other way round, that aspect has been lost when people talk about the movement starting in Seattle.
It's not the same but what we see with the WTO and NAFTA and ALCA, if we let it pass, is the politics of structural adjustment are coming to the north, that's what happens when government is sued by corporations for having laws seen as trade barriers.
In terms of divisions within the movement, one thing became clear at the WSF, is that there needs to be real democracy within the movement at local level before there can be any international democracy within the movement, the WSF made an attempt to have international democracy when at the grass roots there is still so much division, just as economies in the north have a lot to learn from countries in the south who have been fighting structural adjustment in the south, all of us have a huge amount to learn from indigenous communities around the world. The fact that indigenous people are at the forefront of this movement makes sense, because you had a 500 year head start..
In terms of patenting traditional medicines and drinks and drug patents there can and should be an international campaign around these issues, it is life and death
What to say to the people outside this room?
When you look at what is happening right now in Africa, where millions of people are left to die because of patents, you'll never find an issue with the potential to galvanise if we can't make that connection, that means there's something wrong with us.
Campaigns?
What's interesting is, the debate about free trade was about adding on to agreements, side accords, on environment and labour issues, this has been seen as protectionist, it strengthens these organisations by giving them more power. The next round of negotiation of the WTO is important, we must resist the push from US multinationals, people say well, we haven't changed these institutions, there have been no victories, that's not true.. the Multi-lateral treaty on investment was defeated, the WTO round in Seattle was halted, the World Bank would like us to believe that they are an AIDS-elimination programme, the theme at Davos this year was the gap between rich and poor.. they haven't changed how they act but they have changed how they talk.
Blocking Clinton and Bush from having fast-track, is a significant challenge. The Democrats in congress who want Fast track tied to labour and environmental standards, if Bush can't get fast track there's no FTAA..
Q-What is ALCA?
A-ALCA is NAFTA multiplied by 34, Fast-Track (via rapida) is negotiating power by which congress can say yes or no to a bill but cannot change it. Boeing and Caterpillar and corporations lobby for side agreements as it's the only way to get fast-track. When labour unions, AFL-CIO lobby for such agreements they are playing into the hands of multinationals. The strategy should not be to add on but to take out. Via Campesina have called for food safety and agriculture to be taken out of agreements, this is our most basic thing, take it out-its not a commodity.
Q- Zedillo said there should be a campaign against globaphobes?
A- Many people in this room can vouch for the fact that there already is one, it's a war, we saw in Cancun, the incredible brutality, in Quebec, they're building a 3-metre high fence around the city, they've cleared out a prison, they tried to ban scarves, it's very cold in Quebec, that was defeated. Immigration, and activism, militarization of borders while goods run free.
The Movement against globalization is scandalously white, part of it has to do with the relationship with the state, the mainstream left in Europe and the US, less so but also in Canada has been in favour of a strong central government.
The reason why there aren't better links with indigenous and African -Americans is because there isn't the understanding (among the whites) that the state represents security, militarization, crackdowns, the state is the police, in poor communities. This movement has to be about radical participatory democracy with principles of self-determination, the only thing which will bridge and make this movement as diverse as it should be.
If this is simply a movement fighting for better faraway rules and rulers, it will continue not to be relevant. Your question relates to strategy, the same debate in Canada, divisions in lead up to Quebec. It has to do with whether or not everyone will agree to renounce property destruction. It's a complicated discussion.
Q Fair trade/Comercio Justo
I have very mixed feelings about it, it's important to support fair trade coffee from Chiapas, if you have a direct connection and you know where the profits are going, but on the other hand there should not be too much emphasis on fair trade as an alternative to neoliberalism, because I think it's a recipe for turning yourself into a niche market instead of a political movement.
In the US and Europe there's a real history of taking radical political movements and turning them into consumer politics, which we saw with the environmental movement in the 1980s, where radical critiques of fossil fuels and oil drilling turned into personal issues about do you recycle? is your laundry detergent green?
It becomes depoliticising and it makes the movement less radical to focus only on issues of personal consumption, capitalism is very absorbent it can absorb a niche market of ethical consumption within this broader marketplace which is very exploitative.
This is the debate that's going on in Europe over organic farming, it's 3 times more expensive, so it becomes a class system, if you can afford it you get to have safe food everyone else gets hormones and genetically-modified crap.
Q Networks?
Some interesting models are emerging around affinity-group organizing, the clash between organizing styles, the pyramid Versus the web, is taking place everywhere.
Many young activists who identify themselves with anarchism, many indigenous communities also, the issue of democracy within organizing is extremely important, it's clashing with NGOs, which are becoming more and more powerful, and were formed as a response to the breakdown of political lobbying in a way, but have become so powerful that they have to address the lack of democracy in their own organizations, you can't scream elitist to the people in Davos and the WTO if you're in a glasshouse-at the world social forum there was a glass VIP room.
You can't throw stones from a glass VIP room.
What about Activism to generate a culture?
The most powerful moments for us as activists is when we get a taste of the future for which we're fighting and that's what we all have to strive for, all the time.
The MST, a movement reclaiming space but also producing. In Italy, the network of social centers, squats which are also political and cultural centers, where culture is being created, ethical consumption, the answer is no, it's not nearly as developed in Europe and the US as it is elsewhere.
CLIP - After this there was a very long interview (with Naomi Klein on various subjects - the reactions to her book, the Zapatista movement, etc.) which you may request from Ricardo Ocampo at <chicanos@prodigy.net.mx>
Here is also what Ricardo is responsible for:
~IBERAMERICAN WEB OF LIGHT Free Community New Info Selection Services 13,800 subscribers on-line in 90 countries
English services
LUXWEB http://www.egroups.com/community/luxweb (4 daily messages) http://www.egroups.com/community/luxwebII (1 daily message) http://www.egroups.com/community/luxwebIII (1 weekly message) ACTION ALERT http://www.egroups.com/community/actionalert
~OPERATION PLANET LOVE http://www.redanahuak.org.mx/opa
Free Planetary Meditation Calendar & Program 2001-2002
HERE ARE SOME MORE INFO ON NAOMI KLEIN
Naomi Klein. Born in Montreal in 1970, Naomi Klein is award-winning journalist and bestselling author. Her articles have appeared in numerous publications ...
http://www.nologo.org/nk/bio.asp
Join Naomi for the first of a series of on-line conversations hosted by nologo.org. June 27, 2001 @ 1PM EST irc.nologo.org. Poll. Description: News on the politics of brand hegemony and corporate power, and of acts of organized and disorganized - CLIP - http://www.nologo.org/
Naomi Klein, love in a global market. 24 May 2001, Comment: Poor people of America.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Archive/0,5673,-991,00.html
4.
DAILY GRIST
28 Jun 2001
http://www.gristmagazine.com
5.
SMELLS LIKE PEW SPIRIT
Unlike many philanthropies that fund already-existing green groups, the Pew Charitable Trusts, one of the country's largest environmental grant makers, has launched major new campaigns and even begun its own organizations, like the National Environmental Trust and the Heritage Forest Campaign. Pew focuses on three issues -- global warming, marine conservation, and forest protection. It was a big force behind the campaign that produced more than a million public comments last year in favor of former President Clinton's plan to ban road-building on nearly 60 million acres of public land. The foundation will spend $52 million on the environment this year, almost five times what it spent in 1990.
New York Times, Douglas Jehl, 28 Jun 2001
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/28/national/28PEW.html
6.
FLOOD, SWEAT, AND TEARS
Climate change and globalization are increasing the threat of flood and famine to the world's poor, according to a report released today by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. From the annual World Disasters Report: "Recurrent disasters from floods in Asia to drought in the Horn of Africa to windstorms in Latin America are sweeping away development gains and calling into question the possibility of recovery." Natural disasters have jumped from 481 in 1998 to 752 last year. Peter Walker, director of the IFRC's Asia Regional Office, said that urbanization in flood plains was another factor behind the rise in disasters.
ABCNews.com, Reuters, Richard Waddington, 28 Jun 2001
http://www.abcnews.go.com/wire/US/reuters20010628_317.html
5.
From: mountainsrme@webtv.net (Mark Quire)
Date: Thu, 28 Jun 2001
Subject: Fwd: Muslim Cleric Healed of AIDS - CBN.com
Jean
Here is a story that I came across that you might find interesting.
PRAISE TO GOD FROM WHERE ALL GOOD THINGS FLOW.
Happy Trails
Mark
http://www.cbn.com/partner/Article_Display_Page/1,1183,PTID2546|CHID101024|CIID502014,00.html
6.
From: "Razel Levine" <razel@nvinet.com>
--- Original Message ---
From: "Will Thomas" <willthomas@telus.net>
Sent: Thursday, June 28, 2001
Subject: IMPORTANT Chemtrails development
Dear Chemtrails Bulletin Subscribers,
This is hot! Just in from AP. Democrats press for disclosure. Stay tuned.
My best to everyone,
Will Thomas
Wednesday June 27, 2001
Democrats Demand Climate Documents
WASHINGTON (AP) - House Democrats are telling the White House it must turn over to Congress any budget and planning documents related to the Bush administration's policies on global warming.
The effort is similar to pressure being brought to bear on Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force by congressional investigators who want Cheney's records as well.
In a letter Wednesday, Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., and 35 other Democrats told White House budget director Mitch Daniels he must provide a detailed report of all spending proposals and any plan for programs related to climate change.
As part of the Foreign Operations Appropriations Act, they said, the administration is obliged to provide a ``detailed account of all federal agency obligations and expenditures for climate change programs and activities,'' along with plans for programs that might mean changes in the budget.
7.
Date: Fri, 22 Jun 2001
Subject: loved this
From: Sue Ingleton <susoulo@bigpond.com>
If you yelled for 8 years, 7 months and 6 days you would have produced enough sound energy to heat one cup of coffee
Hardly seems worth it.
If you farted consistently for 6 years and 9 months, enough gas is produced to create the energy of an atomic bomb
(Now that's more like it)
The human heart creates enough pressure when it pumps out to the body to squirt blood 30 feet
(OMG...!)
A pig's orgasm lasts 30 minutes.
(In my next life I want to be a pig)
A cockroach will live nine days without its head before it starves to death.
(Creepy) (I'm still not over the pig)
Banging your head against a wall uses 150 calories an hour.
(Do not try this at home .. maybe at work)
The male praying mantis cannot copulate while its head is attached to its body. The female initiates sex by ripping the male's head off.
("Honey, I'm home. What the....")
The flea can jump 350 times its body length. It's like a human jumping the length of football field.
(30 minutes...can you imagine??)
The catfish has over 27,000 taste buds.
(What can be so tasty on the bottom of the pond?)
Some lions mate over 50 times a day.
(I still want to be a pig in my next life quality over quantity.)
Butterflies taste with their feet.
(Something I always wanted to know)
The strongest muscle in the body is the tongue.
(Hmmmmmm........)
Right-handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left-handed people do.
(If you're ambidextrous, do you split the difference?)
Elephants are the only animal that cannot jump.
(OK, so that would be a good thing....)
A cat's urine glows under a blacklight.
(I wonder who was paid to figure that out.)
An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.
(I know some people like that.)
Starfish have no brains.
(I know some people like that too.)
Polar bears are left-handed.
(Who knew...? Who cares!)
Humans and dolphins are the only species that have sex for pleasure.
(What about the pig?)
