From: owner-abolition-usa-digest@lists.xmission.com (abolition-usa-digest) To: abolition-usa-digest@lists.xmission.com Subject: abolition-usa-digest V1 #446 Reply-To: abolition-usa-digest Sender: owner-abolition-usa-digest@lists.xmission.com Errors-To: owner-abolition-usa-digest@lists.xmission.com Precedence: bulk abolition-usa-digest Friday, May 25 2001 Volume 01 : Number 446 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 16 May 2001 10:48:30 -0400 From: ASlater Subject: (abolition-usa) Fwd: (CMEP-list) RRR Action of the Month: DOE Woos Governors! >Date: Wed, 16 May 2001 07:28:03 -0500 >Subject: (CMEP-list) RRR Action of the Month: DOE Woos Governors! >X-FC-MachineGenerated: true >From: "NPETRIE@citizen.org" > >***apologies for cross-postings*** > >RADIOACTIVE ROADS & RAILS ACTION OF THE MONTH - MAY 2001 > >Remind your Governor to consider transportation concerns when assessing >nuclear dump proposal! > >On May 4, the Department of Energy (DOE) sent letters to the Governors and >Legislatures of every state, inviting their comments on a possible >recommendation of Yucca Mountain, Nevada, for development as a nuclear >waste repository. > >The Yucca Mountain Project, if approved, would launch an unprecedented >nuclear transportation scheme, with 77,000 tons high-level radioactive >waste from commercial reactors and atomic weapons facilities passing >through 43 states, within half a mile of 50 million Americans. >Transporting high-level waste is risky business, but the DOE has not >detailed its plans for shipping waste to Yucca Mountain, and public >concerns have not been addressed. > >TAKE ACTION! > >Write to your Governor and ask him/her to raise transportation concerns >with the DOE. Urge your Governor to withhold support for the Yucca >Mountain repository proposal until these concerns have been addressed. >See sample letter following. > >Find the address of your Governor online at >www.nga.org/governors/1,1169,C_GOV_ADDRESS,00.html. > >Copy letters to: > >Carol Hanlon >S&ER Products Manager >U. S. Department of Energy >Yucca Mountain Site Characterization Office >P.O. Box 30307 M/S 025 >North Las Vegas, NV 89036-0707 >or online at www.ymp.gov/timeline/ser/comment_ser.htm > >Your Congressmember >U.S. House of Representatives >Washington, DC 20515 >Find names and e-mail addresses at >www.house.gov/house/MemberWWW_by_State.htm > >Your Senators >U.S. Senate >Washington, DC 20510 >Find names and e-mail addresses at www.senate.gov/contacting/index.cfm > > >SAMPLE LETTER > >The Honorable [Name of Governor] >Governor >The State of X >[Address] > >[Date] > > >Dear Governor X: > >The Department of Energy (DOE) has invited your comments on its >consideration of a possible recommendation of Yucca Mountain, Nevada, for >development as a permanent repository for high-level nuclear waste. I >urge to consider the many unanswered questions about the transportation >scenario for shipping waste from reactor sites across the country to >Nevada, and to raise these issues with the Secretary of Energy. > >The Yucca Mountain Project, if approved, would launch an unprecedented >nuclear transportation scheme, with 77,000 tons of high-level radioactive >waste shipments passing through 43 states, within half a mile of 50 >million Americans. Likely transportation routes through our state include >[see www.ymp.gov/timeline/eis/routes/routemaps.htm]. > >As the DOE rushes to recommend Yucca Mountain for development as a nuclear >repository, many concerns remain about the suitability of site itself. In >addition, many issues related to the large scale transportation of >high-level waste through our state have not been addressed. Approximately >11,000 comments - more than half related to transportation concerns - were >submitted on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Yucca >Mountain Project, but the DOE has yet to respond. > >Transporting high-level nuclear waste is inherently dangerous because it >elevates the risk of radiological release and disperses this risk along >transportation routes where our emergency response personnel may lack the >training and equipment necessary to respond effectively to a radiological >accident. Yet the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Yucca >Mountain Project deals inadequately with the transportation scenario. For >example, the DOE has not specified which routes would be used for Yucca >Mountain shipments or whether the waste would travel by train or by truck, >and has not identified a clear process for making these decisions. > >The canisters that would be used to transport nuclear waste to Yucca >Mountain have not been subjected to physical testing, and computer models >rely on outdated testing parameters. Unanswered questions remain about the >risk of sabotage and liability in the case of an accident. Even without >an accident, nuclear waste transportation canisters routinely emit the >equivalent of one chest x-ray per hour of harmful radiation. Also, >property values have been shown to decline along nuclear waste shipment >routes. > >Please ask the DOE to address these transportation issues before >finalizing a site recommendation. I urge you to withhold support for the >Yucca Mountain repository proposal until these concerns have been >addressed and the feasibility of transporting nuclear waste to Nevada has >been adequately assessed. > >Sincerely, > >[Your name & address] > >c.c. Carol Hanlon, DOE > U.S. Representative > U.S. Senators >____________________ >If you would like to be removed from the cmep-list, send an email to >cmep@citizen.org with the words "unsubscribe cmep" in the subject. > >Questions about the CMEP-list can be directed to cmep@citizen.org > >To learn more about this and other issues Critical Mass Energy and >Environment Program works on, visit our website at www.citizen.org . > >Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program > >Questions about the CMEP-list can be directed to cmep@citizen.org > - - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 16 May 2001 10:44:41 -0700 From: Shundahai Network Subject: (abolition-usa) Free the 3 activists still in Jail for Mother's Day NTS Actions! PHONE: 775-537-608 Three Western Shoshone supporters who used non-violent direct action to temporarily stop business as usual at the Nevada Test Site (NTS) have been in jail since the morning of Monday May 14th, 2001, and are currently being held in Tonopah, NV. THEY NEED YOUR HELP! Greg Geddy was arraigned on the afternoon of May 15th) and pled "not guilty" to the charge of public nuisance. His trial will be on May 29th at 2PM. Greg was arrested for stopping a Department of Energy (DOE) worker bus from entering the NTS. He put his life in jeopardy when he wrapped himself around the axle of the bus. Wackenhut Security and Nye County Sheriffs used pepper spray and physical force to remove him from the bus. Two women, Katrina Worthing, age 19, and Rosanna Hatch, age 18, were arrested for being a part of a soft blockade. They refused to accept this false arrest and left the holding pen by moving a porta potty next to the fence, climbing up on it, unraveling the barbed wire, and running into the desert. They were chased and captured by NTS security. The two women are being held, pending bail until their arraignment on May 22nd at 2pm. These three Western Shoshone supporters are trying to raise bail money that would allow for an earlier release. We have already raised some of it, and with $600 more they could be free. The charges are as follows: All 3 with Public Nuisance (NRS 202.470) a misdemeanor, $330 bail each The two women with the additional charge of "Escaped Prisoner" (NRS 212.090) a gross misdemeanor, additional $2000 bail each. The activists along with many others have permission from the Western Shoshone Nation to "Gather, Go and Come" in Western Shoshone territory. Nye County does not have jurisdiction over Western Shoshone land, which according to the 1863 Treaty of Ruby Valley includes NTS. The Western Shoshone Nation has never ceded their lands to the NTS and the Western Shoshone issued land use permits to the peace activists giving them the ability to move about freely on their land. The courts have not pursued charges in the past on charges of "suspected trespass on federal lands," which the present citations were issued for, possibly to avoid legal conflict with the treaty rights of the sovereign nation of the Shoshone peoples. The misdemeanor charges carry a maximum penalty of 6 months in jail, and/or $1,000 fine, with the possibility of community service. The women face the additional gross misdemeanor penalty, which could add up to an additional year in jail and $2,000 fine for each. Katrina and Roseanna's arraignment will be on May 22nd at 2pm. Unless bail or bond is posted, the three activists will remain in jail until their upcoming court dates. They are all being held in the Tonopah Jail, and would like to go home as soon as possible. If you can send them a donation of money or provide legal assistance, please contact Shundahai Network. The Nevada Test Site (NTS) is home to over a thousand nuclear weapons detonations and current "subcritical" nuclear weapons tests. These tests are being used by NTS, Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories as a means to develop new and "mini" nuclear weapons. NTS is also the site of two currently operating "low-level" radioactive waste dumps that receive shipments up to fifteen times per week. These activists wanted to prevent another day of destruction and took these nonviolent direct actions to achieve that end. Please help as soon as possible with any monetary or legal assistance in support of these non-violent peace activists. Contact us at shundahai@shundahai.org or call 775 537 6088. There will also be continual updates posted on our web page at: www.shundahai.org Shundahai Network is assisting the activists legal support team at this time; we are not responsible for the individual actions taken by those moved to do so at the NTS. ><>< ><>< ><>< ><>< ><>< ><>< ><>< ><>< ><>< ><>< ><>< ><>< SHUNDAHAI NETWORK "Peace and Harmony with all Creation" Po Box 6360, Pahrump, NV 89041 Phone:(775) 537-6088 Email: shundahai@shundahai.org http://www.shundahai.org Shundahai Network is proud to be part of: US Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons Abolition 2000: A Global Network to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons People of Color/ Disenfranchised Communities Environmental Health Network and the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability >< ><>< ><>< ><>< ><>< ><>< ><>< ><>< ><>< ><>< ><>< - - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 17 May 2001 07:59:47 +0100 From: Sally Light Subject: (abolition-usa) Nevada Desert Experience's Teach-In May 22-24 at San Francisco State University Dear Colleagues, I am sending this message one more time, a reminder to you to come to our 3-day teach-in on May 22-24. I am very happy to say that we have now added two experts on the serious situation re: radioactive contamination at the Hunters Point Shipyard (San Francisco), Maurice Campbell and Dr. Ahimsa Sumchai (please see schedule below). This teach-in is now being hailed as a regional/national event. Hope to see you there. In peace.... Sally Light Executive Director Nevada Desert Experience Nevada Desert Experience=92s S. F. State University Teach-In Schedule ALL ARE WELCOME! Nevada Desert Experience is holding a 3-day teach-in, May 22, 23 & 24, on nuclear and =93Star Wars=94 issues, at San Francisco State University. Billed as =93Nuclear Teach-In Week,=94 the event is open to all, and is sponsored by the campus=92 Latino students group, MEChA. It features experts who will offer presentations in their respective areas of focus. Individual presenters include Isaac Trotts, the scientist who recently resigned from his position at Lawrence Livermore Lab. (one of the US=92 main nuclear weapons development labs), as well as other notables such as June Casey (well-known radiation survivor), Patricia Axlerod (expert on Uranium 238, also known as =93depleted uranium=94), Marylia Kelley (Exec. Director of Tri-Valley CAREs), Andreas Toupadakis (scientist who resigned last year from Livermore Lab), and others. Panels will be drawn from the following groups: Abolition 2000 Global Network to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, American Friends Service Committee, California Peace Action, Nevada Desert Experience, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Tri-Valley CAREs (Communities Against a Radioactive Environment), and Western States Legal Foundation. A panel on Student Organizing will consist of youth who are active in the movement. Lynda Williams, a professor of physics at S.F. State, will present her =93Cosmi= c Cabaret,=94 and outstanding theater piece on =93Star Wars=94 that she per= forms at campuses throughout the US. For more details , call (510) 527-2057, or go to Nevada Desert Experience=92s web site, www.NevadaDesertExperience.org. May 22 - Cesar Chavez Student Bldg. - Rosa Parks Room: 10 am - Welcome, overview of the 3-day event. Sally Light & Dolores Beliso, event organizers. 10:05 am - =93Nukes 101=94 - Brief history of nuclear weapons, nuclear cycle, Dept Of Energy=92s =93 Stockpile Stewardship Program=94, etc. Presenters drawn from WSLF, TVC, PSR, NDE*. 11 am =96 Chris Ney, War Resisters League 11:30 - Corbin Harney, Traditional Spiritual Leader of the Western Shoshone. 12:15 =96 Hunters Point Shipyard nuclear contamination - Maurice Campbell 12:30 pm - Nuclear Power - Ernie Goitein. 1:30 pm - Uranium 238 (aka =93Depleted Uranium=94) - Patricia Axlerod. 2:30 pm - Panel on Radiation & Health. PSR/TVC/WSLF*. 3:30 pm - End of day 1. May 23 -Cesar Chavez Student Bldg. - Jack Adams auditorium: 10 am - Sandra Schwartz of AFSC* facilitates film presentations by David Brown and Cade Bursell. 12 pm - June Casey, well-known radiation survivor. 1 pm - =93Star Wars 101=94 - Presenters drawn from NDE & WSLF*. 2 pm =96 Ward Young =96 Radioactive Waste dumping in California 2:30 pm pm - Lynda Williams=92 =93Cosmic Cabaret.=94 Lynda teaches physi= cs at S.F. State and performs her sensational cabaret piece about =93Star Wars=94 at campuses throughout the US. 3:30 pm - End of day 2. May 24 =96 Cesar Chavez Student Bldg. - Rosa Parks Room: 10 am - Personal witness - Presentations by long-time US anti-nuclear activists Fr. Bill O=92Donnell and Fr. Louie Vitale. 11 am - Lawrence Livermore National Lab - Marylia Kelley, Exec. Dir. of TVC. 11:30 am - Hiroshima & Nagasaki - Presentation by Chris Montesano of NDE. 12 noon - Student Organizing & Youth Outreach - Carah Ong of Abolition 2000 Global Network to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. 12:30 pm - Nuclear whistleblowers - presentation by Jeannie Shaterian on Mordechai Vannunu 1 pm - Nuclear whistleblowers, continued - presentation by Isaac Trotts, former Livermore Lab. scientist. 2 pm - Panel - Future Directions. Presenters drawn from WSLF, TVC, Calif. P.A., AFSC, NDE*, plus Dr. Ahimsa Sumchai. 3:30 pm - End of day 3. *********************** * Notes: AFSC =3D American Friends Services Committee Calif. P.A. =3D California Peace Action NDE =3D Nevada Desert Experience PSR =3D Physicians for Social Responsibility TVC =3D Tri-Valley CAREs (Communities Against a Radioactive Environment) WSLF =3D Western States Legal Foundation **************************************** For more information contact: Sally Light, Exec. Dir. of Nevada Desert Experience (510) 527-2057. Email: sallight1@earthlink.net and/or see NDE=92s web site: www.NevadaDesertExperience.org - - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 19 May 2001 08:11:36 +0100 From: Sally Light Subject: (abolition-usa) [Fwd: Article on Yucca Mountain] This is a multi-part message in MIME format. - --------------F7A5727833CDBD6646257751 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Friends, Here's an article on Yucca Mountain from the UK's Guardian, appearing Sat., May 19, 2001, by way of Janet Bloomfield. Sally Sally Light Executive Director Nevada Desert Experience - --------------F7A5727833CDBD6646257751 Content-Type: message/rfc822 Content-Disposition: inline Return-Path: Received: from snowstorm.mail.pipex.net ([158.43.192.97]) by merlin (EarthLink SMTP Server) with SMTP id tgcnv7.qm.37tiu4s for ; Sat, 19 May 2001 04:58:31 -0700 (PDT) Received: (qmail 9474 invoked from network); 19 May 2001 11:58:22 -0000 Received: from usereb53.uk.uudial.com (HELO jbloomfieldgn) (62.188.10.34) by smtp-6.dial.pipex.com with SMTP; 19 May 2001 11:58:22 -0000 Message-ID: <000d01c0e05b$6eac3840$220abc3e@apc.org> From: "Janet Bloomfield" To: "Sally Light" Cc: Subject: Article on Yucca Mountain Date: Sat, 19 May 2001 12:55:08 +0100 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.2314.1300 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2314.1300 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-MIME-Autoconverted: from 8bit to quoted-printable by falcon.mail.pas.earthlink.net id IAA28545 Dear Sally, greetings, got your lovely card. Thank you. Thought you should see this article in today's Guardian. I am not on the US list so maybe you could forward it? Much love, Janet. Nevada: from viva Vegas to nuclear dump America's big new atomic waste site will be at Yucca mountain - unless a coalition of opponents can stop it Special report: George Bush's America Special report: global warming Duncan Campbell in Amargosa valley, southern Nevada Saturday May 19, 2001 The Guardian The only sound is the humming of desert flies, the only movement is of lizards and ground squirrels, but in the wake of George Bush's stated intention this week to increase nuclear power and found a big national dumpsite for the resulting waste, this patch of other-worldly beauty in t= he Nevada desert is set to become the focus for a battle. Its name is Yucca mountain - six miles of flat-top ridge and some of the land around - and the fight will not only be about the future of the nucl= ear industry and the environment but also about the legal rights of native Americans and the authority of individual states that decide to challenge the federal government. "My energy plan directs the department of energy and the environmental protection agency to move expeditiously to find a safe and permanent repository for nuclear waste," President Bush said in announcing his new energy policy on Thursday. No one in Nevada has any doubt where that repository will be. For more than a decade, Yucca mountain - where, 90 miles north of Las Veg= as, a smaller dump already exists - has been top choice for big storage site. Joe Colvin, president of the Nuclear Energy Institute, has said: "There i= s ample scientific basis for making a decision to dispose of used nuclear f= uel at Yucca mountain." Already $6.7bn (=A34.7bn) of government money has been spent on the Yucca mountain project. The plan is that within 10 or 12 years, the country's nuclear waste, currently stored near nuclear plants in 31 different state= s, will be buried at a greatly expanded facility there. The attraction of the site is that it is deep in the sparsely populated Nevada desert; the adjoining area has been used by the military for missi= le and weapons testing for the past half century. But there is a growing coalition against the dump, and it includes not ju= st environmentalists but everyone from the governor, Kenny Guinn, to local farmers, casino owners and tribal leaders. Legal fight John Wells is the southern representative of the Western Shoshone, a trib= e of around 10,000 who have lived for hundreds of years on the land under dispute. A carpenter by trade - and a former rugby player who has toured England and Wales with his side - Mr Wells sees the battle over the dump = as vital not only for the environmental but also as a test for Indian rights. He argues that because the Ruby valley peace treaty signed by the Shoshon= e and the US government in 1863 contains no nuclear reference, use of the a= rea for that purpose is disallowed. "The treaty states quite specifically what is allowed - and storing nucle= ar waste is not allowed. Our consent has never been forthcoming," Mr Wells s= aid over an iced tea at a grillhouse in Las Vegas where he lives. "This is ou= r land. Our people have lived here and are buried here so it is sacred land= ." The tribe has a long-running campaign for compensation for a big expanse = of the land it claims belonged to its ancestors - 23m acres, in which Yucca mountain occupies a corner. A settlement offer of more than $100m is on the table, and some in the tr= ibe want to accept. No resolution has been reached since a meeting of tribes last year, when Carrie Dann was among Western Shoshone activists speaking out against acceptance. This existing land and compensation issue has become entangled with the nuclear one. According to Mr Wells, the majority of the Shoshone are oppo= sed to the nuclear plan. He believes that the Indians have an unanswerable legal case when it come= s to the land in question, and that Nevada could benefit from that if the battle goes to the courts, as it inevitably will. Others in the area have different reasons to fight the plan. Ed Goedhart, whose Ponderosa dairy f= arm in Amargosa valley has one of the largest organic herds in the country an= d provides Nevada with 25% of its milk, is only a brief journey from the proposed site. Sitting in his office with his Blue Heeler dog dozing at his feet and som= e of his 6,200 Holstein cows are being milked on another cloudless Nevada d= ay, Mr Goedhart is deeply critical of the government's behaviour and its init= ial report on the economic impact of a nuclear-waste site in Nye county: it s= aid 120 worked in agriculture, forestry and fishing in the county, while the true number, he said, was about 550. He is the area's biggest employer, with 100 people on his farm and 700 workers in related industries dependant on it, but no one contacted him before producing these simple figures, he said: "The whole thing is a charade, a joke." The authorities "have not dealt fairly with us and I could be put out of business", Mr Goedhart said. All it would take, he said, would be for a competitor to point out that Ponderosa milk was being produced next to a nuclear dump. Last year, he questioned the accuracy of the government's study at a publ= ic meeting. The next day, he alleges, three government registered cars were cruising up and down outside his property but their occupans did not come= to talk to him. "I feel as an American that this is a justice issue. If a private company tried to do what the government's doing right now, the officers would be in prison." Contamination fear Kalynda Tilges, of the local Citizen Alert group, who pays many visits to the site in her ancient Dodge camper van, said that he group knew that as soon as Mr Bush became president the move towards the dump would accelera= te. "Now Bush is in, the corporations and utility companies feel they have bl= ank cheque but in the long run this may gal vanise the public on a national level. We're not saying 'not in Nevada' we're saying 'not anywhere'. As t= he Western Shoshone say, we all breathe the same air and walk the same earth. We need to phase out nuclear power." Judy Treichel of a campaign group called Nevada Nuclear Waste Task Force said that it was clear that Yucca mountain was the intended site, though = Mr Bush did not mention it in his speech: "They're only looking at one site.= I found his speech outrageous." She suspects that members of congress who g= et financial backing from the nuclear industry are "already be at work on drafting legislation". A national organisation founded by Ralph Nader in 1971, Public Citizen, h= as alleged in a report that "if this permanent storage facility is built, it= is certain to release radioactivity into the environment. No one can guarant= ee the integrity of waste storage casks for the 10,000-year period that thei= r contents would remain dangerously radioactive." It also believes that radioactive mater ial could leak into the groundwat= er and, since there is some seismic activity in Nevada, the safety of nuclea= r storage in the state is open to question. But some locals see benefits in the scheme. They expect the nuclear site = to bring work so that their children will not have be croupiers or lifeguard= s at the Las Vegas hotels. They also believe the project could increase the value of their property. Ed Goedhart is sceptical about a jobs windfall, saying that the project w= ork so far and the adjoining military base has put little into the local economy. "All that money has gone somewhere else. It's lined the pockets = of lobbyists and highly paid consultants who live in Denver, Colorado or som= e other yuppie place and the workers are flown in or shuttled in." In Shoshone lore, the Yucca mountain is a snake. If the government and th= e nuclear industry do press ahead with the waste dump scheme, as now seems inevitable, they could find that the mountain and its diverse supporters still carry a potent bite. For storage: 77,000 tons . Proportion of electricity in the US generated by nuclear power: 20% . Decision due on nation's main nuclear dump site: 2002 . When site could become operational: 2010 . Period that nuclear waste remains dangerously radioactive: 10,000 years . Estimated total cost of Yucca mountain nuclear dump project: $58bn. Mon= ey spent so far is $6.7m . Quantity of nuclear waste to be stored: 77,000 tons . Official Nevada state web- site on issue: www.state.nv.us/nucwaste/ Guardian Unlimited =A9 Guardian Newspapers Limited 2001 Janet Bloomfield 25 Farmadine Saffron Walden Essex CB11 3HR England Tel/Fax: +44 (0)1799 516189 e-mail: janet@atomicmirror.org "Il futoro ha un cuore antico - the future has an ancient heart" Carlo Levi - --------------F7A5727833CDBD6646257751-- - - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 May 2001 11:23:00 -0400 (EDT) From: aslater@gracelinks.org Subject: (abolition-usa) Article from Common Dreams NewsCenter Hello, alice slater wanted to share an interesting article with you. It can be located at: http://www.commondreams.org/views01/0519-04.htm alice slater also added these comments for you: ______________________________________________________________ Common Dreams NewsCenter - www.commondreams.org Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community Make us your internet 'start page' and get rid of that pre-loaded corporate 'start page' that your browser came programmed with. To change your browser settings, please go here: http://www.commondreams.org/starthere.htm Subscribe to our e-mail list and receive weekly updates: http://www.commondreams.org/email.htm Worried about spam? Read our privacy policy: http://www.commondreams.org/privacy.htm - - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 May 2001 19:46:46 -0700 From: HOME Subject: (abolition-usa) Sign-on letter to George W. Bush This letter is from SLO CO (San Luis Obispo County) Grandmothers for Peace to be sent as a sign-on letter. Anyone, whether as a group or as an individual may sign on just by replying to peacegrannie@hotmail.com and saying, "Sign me on!" It is very important that we, the people, stop the insane plan to build more nuclear reactors in the US. Our children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and thousands of generations down the line need our protection!!! Please feel free to forward it to others you might think would like to sign-on. In peace, Molly Johnson May 24, 2001 President George W. Bush The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC 20500 Dear President Bush, “The issue of radioactive pollution—from nuclear testing fallout, from the routine emissions of nuclear (commercial or military) reactors, from the billions of tons of uranium tailings left exposed at sites around the globe, from the massive amounts of low-level and high-level radioactive waste generated every years for decades from hundreds of commercial, military and research reactors around the globe—far from being the passé story the industry’s PR hacks and media assets constantly present it as, is the number-one problem our children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, great-great-grandchildren, ad infinitum, will have to deal with for at least the next 240,000 years. The damage to the integrity of the gene pool is still being assessed as well as increased. All of this has happened in less than the past fifty years! The challenge is paramount. Denial promises extinction of all our relations.” --David Thompson Ratcliffe Now a push is being made to build new nuclear reactors in the United States. This idea is complete insanity! It has been proven by Dr. Ernest Sternglass, Dr. Jay M Gould, Dr. Joseph J. Mangano, Dr. Rosalie Bertell and others that nuclear power is slowly killing the people of the United States in increased infant mortality, childhood cancers, breast cancer, and other types of cancer. It is not even yet known what kind of damage is being done genetically, although the studies regarding the children of people that were exposed in Chernobyl show that mutations do occur. In light of all of this information all nuclear power plants in the United States should be shut down immediately! It is time for the United States to move forward into the 21st century. Advances in technology in renewable energy sources have made the use of oil, gas and uranium essentially obsolete. It is time for decisions about energy to be made based on the health, safety and welfare of the people of this country, especially the children and unborn generations, not on the bank accounts of the corporations. We, the people, ask that the government of the United States adopt a program of converting this great nation into one using predominantly renewable energy sources. The time for change is now! In the words of President John F. Kennedy in June of 1963: "…the number of children and grandchildren with cancer in their bones, with leukemia in their blood, or with poison in their lungs might seem statistically small to some, in comparison with natural health hazards, but this is not a natural health hazard—and it is not a statistical issue. The loss of even one human life, or the malformation of even one baby—who may be born long after we are gone—should be of concern to us all. Our children and grandchildren are not merely statistics toward which we can be indifferent.” Sincerely, ===== - - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 25 May 2001 10:34:42 -0700 From: Jackie Cabasso Subject: (abolition-usa) The Senate: Looking Ahead - --=====================_2820409==_.ALT Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Institute for Public Accuracy 915 National Press Building, Washington, D.C. 20045 (202) 3470020 * http://www.accuracy.org * ipa@accuracy.org Friday, May 25, 2001 Interviews Available: The Senate: Looking Ahead The following policy analysts are available for interviews about implications of the Senate shakeup: LARRY AGRAN, (949) 7246233, (949) 7863976 Agran is the mayor of Irvine, California. He said today: "It's unwise to expect too much from the national Democratic Party. Instead of organizing nationwide against Bush's outrageous $1.6 trillion taxcut bonanza for the rich, the Democrats folded like a tent and agreed to a $1.35 trillion tax giveaway. With Jeffords' switch and the Democrats in control of the Senate, we'll soon see if the Democratic Party actually is prepared to do something about campaign finance reform, prescription drug benefits for seniors and the national scandal of persistent child poverty in America." CLARENCE LUSANE, (202) 8851674, clusane@american.edu Professor of political science at the School of International Service at American University, Lusane said today: "Jeffords has been a moderate Republican, so he's going to line up with the moderate, not the liberal, Democrats. There will be limits on how much it changes the politics of the Senate, but it will change in a flash who is in control of the Senate. This will have an effect on judicial appointments, budget issues, foreign policy. Jesse Helms is no longer chair of the Foreign Relations Committee." JACQUELINE CABASSO, (510) 8395877, wslf@earthlink.net, http://www.wslfweb.org Cabasso, executive director of Western States Legal Foundation, said today: "The new Democratic leadership should mobilize support for the ABM Treaty and take action to oppose dangerous and destabilizing missile defense schemes. They should reinvigorate support for the Kyoto protocol, the Biological Weapons Convention and a sustainable energy policy. And they should aggressively challenge plans to develop 'mininukes,' proposals for oil drilling in the Alaskan wilderness and the renewed drive for nuclear power." TED GLICK, (973) 3385398, indpol@igc.org, http://www.ippn.org National coordinator of the Independent Progressive Politics Network, Glick said today: "While this might slow down parts of the Republican offensive, it's inevitable that we will see a continuation, by and large, of the same types of policies that we have had since the Reagan Revolution, whether under Reagan, Bush, Clinton and now Bush II.... A high military budget was continued despite the end of the Cold War... More people were incarcerated under Clinton than under any other administration in U.S. history..." WILLIAM GROVER, (802) 6542463, (802) 8791474, wgrover@smcvt.edu Professor and chair of the political science department at St. Michael's College in Vermont and author of "The President As Prisoner," Grover said today: "Certainly, having Democrats in control of certain key Senate committees Labor, Environment, Judiciary will help smooth the more draconian edges of rightwing Republican policies in these areas in the short term. Government policy possibly may be marginally less destructive. But let's not take leave of our senses. The Democrats have been partners with the GOP in dismantling the welfare state, remilitarizing our economy, and foisting antidemocratic trade policy (NAFTA, WTO) on the American public and, indeed, the world..." For further information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy: Sam Husseini, (202) 3470020 or (202) 3325055; David Zupan, (541) 4849167 - --=====================_2820409==_.ALT Content-Type: text/html; charset="us-ascii"
Institute for Public Accuracy
915 National Press Building, Washington, D.C. 20045
(202) 3470020 * http://www.accuracy.org * ipa@accuracy.org

Friday, May 25, 2001

Interviews Available: The Senate: Looking Ahead

The following policy analysts are available for interviews about  implications of the Senate shakeup:

LARRY AGRAN, (949) 7246233, (949) 7863976
Agran is the mayor of Irvine, California. He said today: "It's unwise to expect too much from the national Democratic Party. Instead of organizing  nationwide against Bush's outrageous $1.6 trillion taxcut bonanza for the rich, the Democrats folded like a tent and agreed to a $1.35 trillion tax  giveaway. With Jeffords' switch and the Democrats in control of the Senate, we'll soon see if the Democratic Party actually is prepared to do something about campaign finance reform, prescription drug benefits for seniors and the national scandal of persistent child poverty in America."

CLARENCE LUSANE, (202) 8851674, clusane@american.edu
Professor of political science at the School of International Service at American University, Lusane said today: "Jeffords has been a moderate Republican, so he's going to line up with the moderate, not the liberal, Democrats. There will be limits on how much it changes the politics of the Senate, but it will change in a flash who is in control of the Senate. This will have an effect on judicial appointments, budget issues, foreign policy. Jesse Helms is no longer chair of the Foreign Relations Committee."

JACQUELINE CABASSO, (510) 8395877, wslf@earthlink.net, http://www.wslfweb.org
Cabasso, executive director of Western States Legal Foundation, said today: "The new Democratic leadership should mobilize support for the ABM Treaty and take action to oppose dangerous and destabilizing missile defense schemes. They should reinvigorate support for the Kyoto protocol, the Biological Weapons Convention and a sustainable energy policy. And they should aggressively challenge plans to develop 'mininukes,'  proposals for oil drilling in the Alaskan wilderness and the renewed drive for nuclear power."

TED GLICK, (973) 3385398, indpol@igc.org, http://www.ippn.org National coordinator of the Independent Progressive Politics Network,  Glick said today: "While this might slow down parts of the Republican offensive, it's inevitable that we will see a continuation, by and large, of the same types of policies that we have had since the Reagan Revolution, whether under Reagan, Bush, Clinton and now Bush II.... A high military budget was continued despite the end of the Cold War... More people were incarcerated under Clinton than under any other administration  in U.S. history..."

WILLIAM GROVER, (802) 6542463, (802) 8791474, wgrover@smcvt.edu Professor and chair of the political science department at St. Michael's  College in Vermont and author of "The President As Prisoner," Grover said today: "Certainly, having Democrats in control of certain key Senate committees  Labor, Environment, Judiciary  will help smooth the more draconian edges of rightwing Republican policies in these areas in the short term. Government policy possibly may be marginally less destructive. But let's not take leave of our senses. The Democrats have been partners  with the GOP in dismantling the welfare state, remilitarizing our economy,  and foisting antidemocratic trade policy (NAFTA, WTO) on the American  public and, indeed, the world..."

For further information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy: Sam Husseini, (202) 3470020 or (202) 3325055; David Zupan, (541) 4849167 - --=====================_2820409==_.ALT-- - - To unsubscribe to abolition-usa, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------ End of abolition-usa-digest V1 #446 *********************************** - To unsubscribe to $LIST, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe $LIST" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message.