mjh's blog

NEPA Hearing, 10:00am on Monday, August 1st in Rio Rancho

Take Action: Stand Up for NEPA

NEPA is the guarantee that Americans affected by a federal action will get the best information about its impacts, a choice of good alternatives, and the right to have their voice heard before the government makes a final decision.

A Congressional task force will be holding a hearing in Rio Rancho, New Mexico about the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the primary federal law that gives you the chance to be heard on, and informed about, federal projects and actions that may harm your air, water and public lands, before ? not after ? a final decision is made.

The NEPA Task Force, convened by California Congressman Richard Pombo, chair of the House Resources Committee, is holding the fourth of six field hearings at 10:00am on Monday, August 1st in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, at the Rio Rancho High School located at 301 Loma Colorado, Rio Rancho, NM 87124. It will cover the role of NEPA in the states of New Mexico, Colorado, Utah and Wyoming.

Transportation and lunch will be provided for those coming from northern New Mexico. Contact Bryan (505) 988-9126 x157 or Jim (505) 758-3874 for more information. In Albuquerque, contact Sarah (505) 243-7767

You can have your voice represented if you take action by July 29th.

Unnecessary, Tragic Death

ABQjournal: Around N.M.
Noted Gray Wolf Dies at Refuge

Brunhilda, the charismatic Mexican gray wolf who became a star of the federal government’s wolf reintroduction program and an enemy to ranchers because of her taste for cattle, died Thursday.

Brunhilda, known as No. 511 in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s wolf program, died when she overheated during a routine capture and medical checkup at the Servilleta National Wildlife Refuge near Socorro. The head of the agency in the Southwest called her death “a sad loss.”

She had been taken from the Gila National Forest less than a month ago to spend her life in captivity after she and her pack started killing cows on grazing allotments in the forest.

Born in captivity, Brunhilda became the face of the controversial program when, as a saucy 9-month-old pup, she bounded from a cage in 1998 as one of the first wolves introduced into the wild.

This was the paragon of wolves and she would not be dead if ranchers were reasonable or held proportionate power. mjh

N.M. Delegates Split on Extending Patriot Act

ABQjournal: House Extends Patriot Act; N.M. Delegates Split on Bill By Glen Johnson

After more than nine hours of debate, the House approved the measure 257-171. Forty-three Democrats joined 214 Republicans in voting to renew key provisions of the Patriot Act that were set to expire at the end of the year.

Rep. Tom Udall, a New Mexico Democrat and vocal opponent of the Patriot Act, voted against the measure, which he has said infringes on Americans’ civil liberties.

Reps. Steve Pearce and Heather Wilson, R-N.M., both voted for the reauthorization.

“The Patriot Act is an effort to give law enforcement the tools to prevent — not just prosecute — terrorist attacks,” Wilson said. “Our nation would be less secure without the Patriot Act.”

Pearce said the act requires judicial approval before most provisions can be used by law enforcement, which he said is an effective check on abuse of power. [mjh: is Pearce a liar or an idiot?]

“If you’re not a terrorist, if you’re not a drug runner, you really don’t have anything at all to be concerned about with the Patriot Act,” Pearce said.

Diametric Goals

Japanese monks begin trek across West to remember nuclear bombings

A lantern containing a remnant of the fire from a nuclear attack that destroyed Hiroshima is on its way to New Mexico, the birthplace of atomic weapons.

Buddhist monks will carry the lantern – by foot – south and west during the next three weeks, passing through California, Arizona and part of New Mexico. Their goal is the Trinity Site at White Sands Missile Range, where the world’s first nuclear weapon was detonated on July 16, 1945.

“I’m comforted in knowing someone would walk more than 1,000 miles to make a statement for world peace,” said Mark Weiss, 41, who attended a welcome ceremony in Palo Alto Sunday.

The Japanese monks, dressed in robes and rope sandals, set out from San Francisco on Saturday, the 60th anniversary of the test. They plan to reach the test site on Aug. 9, the day the atomic bomb called “Fat Man” detonated over Nagasaki.

“In the eastern calendar, 60 is the end of a cycle,” said the Rev. Keishi Miyamoto, one of the monks. “I would like to bring the flame back to the place it came from and extinguish it in the hope that there won’t be another use of nuclear weapons ever again.”

The “atomic flame” is a vivid reminder of the day a U.S. bomber dropped the “Little Boy” nuclear bomb on the Japanese city. More than 200,000 Japanese died in the bombing, and thousands died later of radiation illnesses.

ON THE NET

Global Nuclear Disarmament Fund: http://www.gndfund.org

ABQjournal: New-Nuke Design Efforts Expedited By John Fleck, Journal Staff Writer

Pentagon planners and nuclear weapons scientists, working on a shoestring budget, are moving quickly to begin designing a new easy-to-maintain nuclear warhead, according to an internal congressional analysis. …

The United States has not built a new nuclear warhead since 1989, when the Rocky Flats plutonium factory outside Denver was shut down. …

The [Congressional Research Service] report notes that the new warhead design effort has won widespread congressional support. Both the House and Senate have already voted to nearly triple the budget for the work next year to $25 million, well above the Bush administration’s $9.4 million request for the work.

Note that the second story is not about the nuclear bunker busters we are also pursuing. mjh

I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones. – Albert Einstein (1879 – 1955)

Either war is obsolete or men are. – R. Buckminster Fuller (1895 – 1983)

Spying On You

FBI has files on ACLU, Greenpeace, other rights groups

The FBI has thousands of pages of records in its files relating to the monitoring of civil rights, environmental and similar advocacy groups, the Justice Department acknowledges.

The organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union and Greenpeace, are suing for the release of the documents. The organizations contend that the material will show that they have been subjected to scrutiny by FBI task forces set up to combat terrorism.

The FBI has identified 1,173 pages related to the ACLU and 2,383 pages about Greenpeace, but it needs at least until February to process the ACLU files and until June to review the Greenpeace documents, the government said in a filing in U.S. District Court in Washington. …

“This administration has a history of using its powers against its peaceful critics. If, in fact, the FBI has been deployed to help in that effort, that would be quite shocking,” John Passacantando, Greenpeace’s U.S. executive director, said. …

A memo from Sept. 4, 2003, about Internet sites that were promoting protests at the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York was addressed to counterterrorism units in Boston, Los Angeles and New York.

“Why is this being labeled as counterterrorism when it’s nothing more protests at a political convention, a lawful First Amendment activity?” ACLU’s executive director, Anthony Romero, asked.

ACLU Says FBI Compiling Dossiers on Non-Violent Activist Groups

The document was released in response to an ACLU lawsuit filed two months ago to expedite its FOIA request for FBI surveillance files on the ACLU, Greenpeace, United for Peace and Justice, Code Pink, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee and the Muslim Public Affairs Council.

“The UFPJ [United for Peace and Justice, a national peace organization,] report underscores our concern that the FBI is violating Americans’ right to peacefully assemble and oppose government policies without being branded as terrorist threats,” said Ann Beeson, associate legal director of the ACLU. “There is no need to open a counterterrorism file when people are simply exercising their First Amendment rights.”

FBI Spy Files
Is the FBI Spying on You?

Spy Agency Targets Bush Critics – Global News on the World Crisis Web by William Fisher

Those who remember recent history will not be surprised to learn that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has been amassing files on the American Civil Liberties Union, Greenpeace and other critics of the George W. Bush administration.

Back in the 1960s and 1970s, the FBI, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Department of Defence and other intelligence agencies had all conspired to engage in widespread spying on ordinary U.S. citizens — and illegal covert operations.

The targets back then were left-wing groups and individuals, civil rights and anti-Vietnam activists and, of course, Pres. Richard Nixon’s “enemies list”. …

But it was the FBI’s spying on Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. that ended that era of government snooping. The FBI had used wiretaps and a covert operation, personally directed by Hoover, to unearth derogatory information intended to destroy King as a national civil rights leader.

Today, in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, the FBI is again armed with expanded powers to collect information on ordinary citizens. And it has been doing so.