Honeybee die-off threatens food supply: We MUST act NOW!!

BELTSVILLE, Md. - Unless someone or something stops it soon, the

mysterious killer that is wiping out many of the nation's honeybees could

have a devastating effect on America's dinner plate, perhaps even reducing

us to a glorified bread-and-water diet.

Honeybees don't just make honey; they pollinate more than 90 of the

tastiest flowering crops we have. Among them: apples, nuts, avocados,

soybeans, asparagus, broccoli, celery, squash and cucumbers. And lots of the really

sweet and tart stuff, too, including citrus fruit, peaches, kiwi, cherries, blueberries,

cranberries, strawberries, cantaloupe and other melons.

In fact, about one-third of the human diet comes from

insect-pollinated

plants, and the honeybee is responsible for 80 percent of that

pollination, according to the U.S.

Department of Agriculture.

Even cattle, which feed on alfalfa, depend on bees. So if the collapse

worsens, we could end up being "stuck with grains and water," said

Kevin Hackett, the national program leader for USDA's bee and pollination

program.

"This is the biggest general threat to our food supply," Hackett said.

While not all scientists foresee a food crisis, noting that large-scale

bee die-offs have happened before, this one seems particularly baffling

and alarming.

U.S. beekeepers in the past few months have lost one-quarter of their

colonies ” or about five times the normal winter losses ” because of

what scientists have dubbed Colony Collapse Disorder. The problem

started in November and seems to have spread to 27 states, with similar

collapses reported in Brazil, Canada and parts of Europe.

Scientists are struggling to figure out what is killing the honeybees,

and early results of a key study this week point to some kind of

disease or parasite.

Even before this disorder struck, America's honeybees were in trouble.

Their numbers were steadily shrinking, because their genes do not equip

them to fight poisons and disease very well, and because their

gregarious nature exposes them to ailments that afflict thousands of their

close cousins.

"Quite frankly, the question is whether the bees can weather this

perfect storm," Hackett said. "Do they have the resilience to bounce back?

We'll know probably by the end of the summer."

Experts from Brazil and Europe have joined in the detective work at

USDA's bee lab in suburban Washington. In recent weeks, Hackett briefed

Vice President Cheney's office on the problem. Congress has held hearings

on the matter.

"This crisis threatens to wipe out production of crops dependent on

bees for pollination," Agriculture Secretary

Mike Johanns said in a statement.

A congressional study said honeybees add about $15 billion a year in

value to our food supply.

Of the 17,000 species of bees that scientists know about, "honeybees

are, for many reasons, the pollinator of choice for most North American

crops," a National Academy of Sciences study said last year. They pollinate many

types of plants, repeatedly visit the same plant, and recruit other honeybees to visit, too.

Pulitzer Prize-winning insect biologist E.O. Wilson of Harvard said the

honeybee is nature's "workhorse” and we took it for granted."

"We've hung our own future on a thread," Wilson, author of the book

"The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth," told The Associated Press

on Monday.

Beginning this past fall, beekeepers would open up their hives and find

no workers, just newborn bees and the queen. Unlike past bee die-offs,

where dead bees would be found near the hive, this time they just

disappeared. The die-off takes just one to three weeks.

USDA's top bee scientist, Jeff Pettis, who is coordinating the

detective work on this die-off, has more suspected causes than time, people and

money to look into them.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070502/ap_on_sc/honeybee_die_off

Imported from external blog

The U.S. military accused the Iranians of links to an Iranian Revolutionary Guard faction that is allegedly supporting insurgents in Iraq. It disputed Iranian claims that the men were diplomats and that the office is a consulate.

In its letter, Iran's deputy ambassador Mehdi Danesh-Yazdi strongly condemned the Jan. 11 raid and accused the U.S. of "another flagrant violation of the basic principles of international law" and diplomatic conventions which bar attacks on diplomatic missions.

The Foreign Ministry said U.S. forces also confiscated documents and other property. It said Iran has had an office in Irbil since 1992, and its status was officially changed to a consulate in the past year.

Danesh-Yazdi called for the immediate release of the five Iranians, the return of the property seized by U.S. forces and compensation for damages to the consulate.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran holds the U.S. government fully responsible for the consequences of this unlawful act, and for the safety and security of the ... consular officers," Danesh-Yazdi said.

"Indeed, the said attack constitutes a matter of grave concern that requires an urgent and resolute response on the part of the United Nations, and in particular the Security Council," Danesh-Yazdi said.

He did not indicate what specific response Iran was seeking, but asked Ban to circulate his letter as an official document of the General Assembly and the Security Council.

Here is a link to the story:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070120/ap_on_re_mi_ea/un_iran_iraq

This human rights related site may also interest you:

http://argusfest.org/

as well as this:

http://www.democracynow.org/

Best wishes,

Take care-

Taylor

http://my.care2.com/bluessunn

http://www.musicforte.com/member/bluessunn

Three of Bush's quotes, led by his "I'm the Decider" remark in April, head 2006's most notable quotations compiled by Fred R. Shapiro, editor of the Yale Book of Quotations.

Bush's comment that "I'm the decider, and I decide what is best. And what's best is for Don Rumsfeld to remain as the secretary of defense" is followed by his State of the Union address quote that "America is addicted to oil" and by his comment on Hurricane Katrina to high school students in New Orleans: "I take full responsibility for the federal government's response."

The "decider" quote was also named "Bushism" of the year by the Global Language Monitor, which issues a list of best George Bush quotes each year. The monitor's Paul JJ Payack said No. 2 on that list was "I use The Google."

Other notable quotes of the year compiled by Shapiro include British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen's explanation about his movie "Borat," in which he plays a boorish Kazakh TV journalist:

"The joke is not on Kazakhstan. I think the joke is on people who can believe that the Kazakhstan that I describe can exist."

Cohen's quote was followed in fifth place by another comic's remark --- Stephen Colbert's comment on Bush at the White House correspondents dinner: "The greatest thing about this man is he's steady. You know where he stands. He believes the same thing Wednesday that he believed on Monday, no matter what happened Tuesday."

The quotes are not chosen because they are eloquent or admirable, Shapiro said, but "because they are important or they are particularly revealing of the spirit of our times."

Right-wing polemicist Ann Coulter made the list for her attack on the widows of men who died in the World Trade Center on September 11:

"These broads are millionaires, lionized on TV and in articles about them, reveling in their status as celebrities and stalked by grief-arrazies. I have never seen people enjoying their husbands' death so much."

In seventh place was a line from the Will Ferrell film, "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Rickey Bobby," "If you ain't first, you're last."

Eighth was a quote from embattled Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany about statements made about the economy to win an election: "We lied morning, noon and night."

No list would be complete without a comment from Paris Hilton: "When I was a kid I had no idea I lived in a mansion. Then I went to a friend's house and I was like -- 'Oh."'

Here is a link to video and audio of the story:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070119/pl_nm/quotes_dc

This human rights related site may also interest you:

http://argusfest.org/

as well as this:

http://www.democracynow.org/

Best wishes,

Take care-

Taylor

http://my.care2.com/bluessunn

http://www.musicforte.com/member/bluessunn

Former Republican Rep. Bob Ney was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison Friday for trading political favors for golf trips, campaign donations and other gifts in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal.

Ney, the first congressman convicted in the federal bribery investigation involving lawmakers, their aides and Bush administration officials, pleaded guilty in October to conspiracy and making false statements.

The six-term lawmaker from Heath, Ohio, who once chaired the House Administration Committee, accepted golf and gambling trips, tickets to sporting events, free meals and campaign donations arranged by Abramoff and his associates.

"You violated a host of laws that you as a congressman are sworn to enforce and uphold," said U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle, who recommended that Ney serve his time at a federal prison in Morgantown, W.Va., about an hour-and-a-half drive from his birthplace in Wheeling.

Ney will also serve two years probation and must pay a $6,000 fine. Huvelle recommended he enter a prison alcohol rehabilitation program for treatment of a drinking problem Ney has spoken of in recent months. Completing the program could knock about a year off his sentence.

Huvelle did not set a date for Ney to report to prison. He resigned from Congress in November, just before the elections.

The sentence was harsher than recommended by prosecutors, Huvelle said, because Ney had violated the trust placed on him as a public official. "Both your constituents and the public trusted you to represent them honestly," she said.

Ney apologized to his family and constituents during a brief statement.

"I will continue to take full responsibility, accept the consequences and battle the demons of addiction that are within me," he said.

Ney's defense team filed letters from his doctor and a former staff member who described his drinking problems and said they accelerated when he came under scrutiny in the Abramoff lobbying scandal.

Dr. Renato F. Dela Cruz, the congressman's physician, wrote that Ney's behavior had been influenced by an increase in alcohol consumption that began in 2001. Cruz said he urged the lawmaker to cut back, but the recommendation was ignored.

Matthew D. Parker, a former aide and friend, said Ney "could rarely make it through the day without drinking and would often begin drinking beers as early as 7:30 a.m."

Huvelle said Ney's alcoholism didn't fully explain his pattern of corruption.

"It wasn't an isolated aberration. It had a consistency to it: It involved significant and serious abuses of the public's trust," Huvelle said.

Ney, 52, is still eligible to receive his congressional pension. The National Taxpayers Union, which tracks pensions, said he would receive about $29,000 a year if he waited to draw it until 2016, when he turns 62.

Ney's election-year actions drew criticism from Republican congressional leaders and the White House. Bush spokesman Tony Snow said Ney's criminal activity "is not a reflection of the Republican Party."

The gifts Ney received ranged from a trip to Scotland bankrolled by Abramoff's clients to thousands of dollars in gambling chips that Ney got on two overseas junkets from foreign businessman Fouad al-Zayat, a Syrian-born aviation company owner in Cyprus.

The lawmaker agreed to push legislation helpful to Abramoff clients including Indian tribes and a foreign beverage distiller. He agreed to help Al-Zayat get a visa to enter the United States and a legislative exemption to laws barring the sale of U.S.-made airplanes and parts to a foreign country.

Abramoff, once an influential lobbyist, is the star witness in an FBI corruption investigation that has shaken Capitol Hill. He is serving six years in a Maryland federal prison in a fraudulent Florida casino deal.

Ney's sentencing is the latest development in a long-running investigation that so far has yielded convictions of several former congressional aides and two members of the Bush administration — David Safavian and Robert Stillwell.

Among those still under scrutiny for their ties to Abramoff are former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas; former Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont.; Rep. John Doolittle (news, bio, voting record), R-Calif.; Steven Griles, a former deputy secretary at the Interior Department, and Italia Federici, a political fundraiser for former Interior Secretary Gale Norton.

Here is a link to video and audio of the story:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070119/ap_on_go_co/ney_corruption

This human rights related site may also interest you:

http://argusfest.org/

as well as this:

http://www.democracynow.org/

Best wishes,

Take care-

Taylor

http://my.care2.com/bluessunn

http://www.musicforte.com/member/bluessunn

“We Knew Damn Well He’d Be Tortured” -- Sen. Patrick Leahy Questions Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on Extraordinary Rendition Victim Maher Arar

Here is a link to video and audio of the story:

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/01/19/1432225

The Bush administration’s handling of the case of Maher Arar came under new scrutiny Thursday when Attorney General Alberto Gonzales appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee, now controlled by the Democrats. Arar is the Canadian citizen who was seized by U.S. officials during a stopover flight in New York in 2002. He was secretly sent to Syria as part of the Bush administration's extraordinary rendition program.

In Syria, Arar was held for almost a year in a grave-like cell. He was repeatedly tortured. He was released without ever being charged with a crime. Last year, the Canadian government determined Maher Arar was innocent but the Bush administration has never apologized for its actions.

On Thursday Attorney General Alberto Gonzales refused to state why the U.S. detained him and why he was sent to Syria instead of his home in Canada. The attorney general was questioned by Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy – the new chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Maher Arar is still awaiting for an apology from the Bush administration. Three months ago, Arar was honored in Washington DC by the Institute for Policy Studies. But he was unable to attend the ceremony because he remains on the U.S. no-fly list even though the Canadian government has publicly acknowledged he is innocent. This is part of a video message Maher Arar recorded for the awards ceremony.

This human rights related site may also interest you:

http://argusfest.org/

as well as this:

http://www.democracynow.org/

Best wishes,

Take care-

Taylor

http://my.care2.com/bluessunn

http://www.musicforte.com/member/bluessunn

Imported from external blog

The Senate passed the measure sixty five to thirty four. Twelve Democrats joined the Republican majority. The House passed virtually the same legislation on Wednesday. Legal groups, including the Center for Constitutional Rights, are already preparing to challenge the constitutionality of the law in court.

• Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.). Ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee. See Senator Leahy’s statement on the detainee bill here.

• Michael Ratner. President of the Center for Constitutional Rights.