[APR-news] December 7, 2005

Wed Dec 7 22:10:48 GMT 2005

Alternative Press Review - Your Guide Beyond the Mainstream
www.altpr.org - December 7, 2005

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http://www.altpr.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=Sections&file=index&req=viewarticle&artid=368&page=1
The Low Power FM Fiasco
By Ron Sokolsky

As Dunifer put it in a widely circulated email message to the free radio
movement on January 12, 2000, "Writing to your Congressman is not going to
do any good unless there is a check for at least $10,000 attached with a
promise of more to come... Congress does not give a rat's ass about what any
of us think or want. And neither does the FCC, it's all about damage control
on Kennard's part. He knows that the government does not have the resources
to deal with thousands of folks taking back their airwaves. So he had to
come up with a strategy that would fool folks who somehow still believe the
system has a degree of legitimacy and credibility and would participate in
the process-just a charade really in the final analysis... Our real strength
has always been the threat of an ungovernable situation on the
airwaves-let's make that threat a damn credible reality by putting hundreds
and thousands of free radio stations on the air."

http://www.altpr.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=547&mode=nocomments&order=0&thold=0
Watching Human Rights Watch
Open Letter to Kenneth Roth, Executive Director Human Rights Watch
By Gabriele Zamparini

Before coming to HRW, Marc spent seven years in the Pentagon as a senior
intelligence analyst covering Iraq. His last position there was chief of
high-value targeting during the Iraq War in 2003. Marc was on the Operation
Desert Fox (Iraq) Battle Damage Assessment team in 1998, led a Pentagon
Battle Damage Assessment team to Kosovo in 1999, and recommended thousands
of aimpoints on hundreds of targets during operations in Iraq and Serbia. He
also participated in over 50 interrogations as a subject matter expert.

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Other articles of interest

http://www.medialens.org/alerts/05/051206_burning_the_planet.php
BURNING THE PLANET FOR PROFIT
Media Lens Alert

After 4.6 billion years of planetary history, we may become the first
species to monitor our own extinction. In impressive detail, humankind is
amassing evidence of devastating changes in the atmosphere, oceans, ice
cover, land and biodiversity. And yet mass media, politics, the education
system and other realms of public inquiry demonstrate a stunning capacity to
focus on what does not really matter. Meanwhile, the truly vital issues
receive scant attention to the point of invisibility: the parlous prospects
for humanity's survival and the root causes underlying the global
environmental threat.

http://oreaddaily.blogspot.com/2005/12/this-is-way-human-species-ends.html
THIS IS THE WAY THE HUMAN SPECIES ENDS
Oread Daily

Speaking at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco a
leading US climate scientist has warned that the world has one decade to get
to grips with climate change.

http://www.prwatch.org/node/4258
The Victory of Spin
Laura Miller, PR Watch

More examples of the Bush administration's manipulation of news spilled out
into U.S. newspapers last week. Raising further questions about how the
White House continues to spin its "War on Terror," the Los Angeles Times
reported on November 30 the U.S. military "is secretly paying Iraqi
newspapers to publish stories written by American troops in an effort to
burnish the image of the U.S. mission in Iraq. The articles, written by U.S.
military 'information operations' troops, are translated into Arabic and
placed in Baghdad newspapers." The stories promoted the efforts of U.S. and
Iraqi troops and denounced terrorists.

http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/29108/
Carrying the 'White Man's Burden' in Iraq
Joshua Holland, AlterNet

One of the many rarely spoken reasons why conservatives in Washington won't
let us leave Iraq is the old notion of civilizing a primitive nation.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ucru/20051207/cm_ucru/werelookingforafewgoodrefuseniks
WE'RE LOOKING FOR A FEW GOOD REFUSENIKS
Ted Rall, Yahoo.com

If we are, as Jean-Paul Sartre posited, defined by our actions, most of the
blame for the murder of more than 100,000 Iraqis belongs to our top
government officials. But Bush's armchair warriors couldn't have invaded
Iraq without a compliant and complicit United States military--one that, it
should be noted, is all volunteer. These individuals, who enjoy free will,
fire the guns and drop the bombs. If personal responsibility is to have any
meaning, the men and women of our armed forces have to be held individually
accountable for the carnage.

http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/29208/
Music Companies Get Mean
Annalee Newitz, AlterNet

Why the hell was a music company sneaking unidentified software onto
people's computers without telling them? Sony's answer -- that it was
digital rights management software to prevent music piracy -- seemed
inadequate. After all, DRM has been around for a while, but it's never come
in the form of secretly installed programs. What were those programs doing,
anyway? Computer security geeks wanted to find out too. Turns out XCP is
based on a tool called a "rootkit," which bad guys have traditionally used
to take control of their victims' computers. Anyone who plays the new Celine
Dion CD on his or her computer is making him- or herself vulnerable to
viruses and other digital nasties. The danger is so great that the US
Computer Emergency Response Team actually issued a special alert Nov. 15
warning people not to play Sony CDs with XCP on them.

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NewsWire

http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,388652,00.html
Gerhard Schröder's government had detailed information on how the CIA
operated in Europe -- and said nothing

http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,389084,00.html
Does anyone believe Condi Rice?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1661531,00.html
Nobel prize-winning playwright Harold Pinter calls for Tony Blair to be
tried for war crimes

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/372195p-316484c.html
Anti-war activists go after Hillary Clinton

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/12/5/234519.shtml?et=y
Michael Reagan declares Howard Dean should be executed for treason

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/dec2005/toxi-d07.shtml
Study finds hundreds of toxic chemicals in umbilical cords of newborns

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/1207-02.htm
2005 Costliest Year for Extreme Weather

http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/bulletins/radionz/200512080601/2a97150b
Planetary doom prediction by global warming scientist

http://www.terradaily.com/news/climate-05zzzzzzu.html
Modeling Of Fossil Fuel Consumption Shows 14 Degree Hike In Temperature

http://www.embassymag.ca/html/index.php?display=story&full_path=/2005/november/30/oilsands/
Alberta Oil Sands Growing Source of Pollution

http://www.earth-policy.org/Updates/2005/Update50.htm
Empty Skies: World's birds at risk

http://www.isn.ethz.ch/news/sw/details.cfm?ID=13770
Iraqi oil industry in crisis

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10355379/
New England power outages possible this winter

http://www.palestinechronicle.com/story.php?sid=120605215804
Ex-Professor Sami Al-Arian Acquitted on Several Charges

http://www.counterpunch.org/lindorff12072005.html
A stunning win for Mumia Abu-Jamal

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