3/31/2007

Moore Co Farmers Mkts

Moore County Farmers Markets Open two locations:

Morganton Road, Sou. Pines, Thursday morning (9 am) April 19th

First Health in Pinehurst next to the Fitness Center, Monday afternoon (3 pm) April 23rd.

Oil, Iran

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/033007A.shtml

3/30/2007

Lights Out

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6509437.stm

More on Gore from truthout

Kelpie Wilson Wearing My Hair Shirt
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/032907B.shtml
Kelpie Wilson writes: "Al Gore is really doing it, bringing climate awareness to the doorsteps of opinion makers and forcing them to consider all of its implications. Of course, no good deed ever goes unpunished in this country."

3/29/2007

In The Gulf

Pentagon Launches Gulf Exercise
The developments come as the US military launched a new exercise in the Gulf. It was the first time the Pentagon used a second aircraft carrier in a Gulf exercise since the US-led invasion of Iraq.

Iran Threatens Iraq Meeting Boycott
Meanwhile Iran is warning it may boycott a meeting with Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice next month unless six Iranians detained by U.S. forces in Iraq are released. The meeting on Iraq’s future follows a lower-level summit earlier this month in Baghdad.

Saudi King: U.S. Occupation of Iraq “Illegitimate”
One of the Bush administration’s closest allies in the Middle East has issued his harshest words to date on the U.S. occupation of Iraq. Speaking at a meeting of Arab leaders in Riyadh, Saudia Arabia’s King Abdullah called the occupation “illegitimate.” Abdullah also called for an end to the U.S.-led boycott of the Palestinian government.

Saudi King Abdullah: “[Fatah and Hamas] succeeded in putting an end to their disputes and agreeing on a national unity government. In light of this positive develop, it is important to end this crippling blockade which has been imposed on the Palestinian people."

Abdullah’s comments come amid news he also turned down a state dinner at the White House for next month.

Important, Take Time To Read

http://www.context.org/ICLIB/IC28/Robert.htm

Tomatoes, Peppers

From: http://www.elsonhaas.com/articles/article_02.html

Tomatoes & Sweet Peppers
These "fruits of the vine" are full of healthful nutrients that include
vitamin C, B-vitamins, carotenoids, and other phytonutrients, especially
the prostate-helpful and tissue-supporting lycopenes.

Both red and green bell peppers were found to have many pesticide
residues from the most neurotoxic of the pesticides. In the FDA's
measurement of both U.S. and Mexican crops, 64% of peppers contained at
least one pesticide, while 36% contained two or more. These vegetables
also may be waxed which makes it difficult to remove the residues and
other chemicals within the waxes. One study found that as many as 30
different pesticides are used to spray tomatoes.

Because the skins of tomatoes are thin and absorbent, and since this is
a staple in many salads, soups and sauces, tomatoes are worth buying
organically grown. At certain times of year, the price of organic plum
tomatoes is competitive with non-organic varieties. And farmer's markets
may be the best source of all for fresh unsprayed tomatoes, or better
yet, grow your own.

3/26/2007

Just Say No to MegaDumps

http://www.nomegadump.org/

Politicians or Citizens?

Published on Saturday, March 24, 2007 by The Progressive
Are We Politicians or Citizens? by Howard Zinn

As I write this, Congress is debating timetables for withdrawal from Iraq. In response to the Bush Administration’s “surge” of troops, and the Republicans’ refusal to limit our occupation, the Democrats are behaving with their customary timidity, proposing withdrawal, but only after a year, or eighteen months. And it seems they expect the anti-war movement to support them.
That was suggested in a recent message from MoveOn, which polled its members on the Democrat proposal, saying that progressives in Congress, “like many of us, don’t think the bill goes far enough, but see it as the first concrete step to ending the war.”

Ironically, and shockingly, the same bill appropriates $124 billion in more funds to carry the war. It’s as if, before the Civil War, abolitionists agreed to postpone the emancipation of the slaves for a year, or two years, or five years, and coupled this with an appropriation of funds to enforce the Fugitive Slave Act.

When a social movement adopts the compromises of legislators, it has forgotten its role, which is to push and challenge the politicians, not to fall in meekly behind them.

We who protest the war are not politicians. We are citizens. Whatever politicians may do, let them first feel the full force of citizens who speak for what is right, not for what is winnable, in a shamefully timorous Congress.

We who protest the war are not politicians. We are citizens. Whatever politicians may do, let them first feel the full force of citizens who speak for what is right, not for what is winnable, in a shamefully timorous Congress.

Timetables for withdrawal are not only morally reprehensible in the case of a brutal occupation (would you give a thug who invaded your house, smashed everything in sight, and terrorized your children a timetable for withdrawal?) but logically nonsensical. If our troops are preventing civil war, helping people, controlling violence, then why withdraw at all? If they are in fact doing the opposite—provoking civil war, hurting people, perpetuating violence—they should withdraw as quickly as ships and planes can carry them home.

It is four years since the United States invaded Iraq with a ferocious bombardment, with “shock and awe.” That is enough time to decide if the presence of our troops is making the lives of the Iraqis better or worse. The evidence is overwhelming. Since the invasion, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have died, and, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, about two million Iraqis have left the country, and an almost equal number are internal refugees, forced out of their homes, seeking shelter elsewhere in the country.

Yes, Saddam Hussein was a brutal tyrant. But his capture and death have not made the lives of Iraqis better, as the U.S. occupation has created chaos: no clean water, rising rates of hunger, 50 percent unemployment, shortages of food, electricity, and fuel, a rise in child malnutrition and infant deaths. Has the U.S. presence diminished violence? On the contrary, by January 2007 the number of insurgent attacks has increased dramatically to 180 a day.

The response of the Bush Administration to four years of failure is to send more troops. To add more troops matches the definition of fanaticism: If you find you’re going in the wrong direction, redouble your speed. It reminds me of the physician in Europe in the early nineteenth century who decided that bloodletting would cure pneumonia. When that didn’t work, he concluded that not enough blood had been let.

The Congressional Democrats’ proposal is to give more funds to the war, and to set a timetable that will let the bloodletting go on for another year or more. It is necessary, they say, to compromise, and some anti-war people have been willing to go along. However, it is one thing to compromise when you are immediately given part of what you are demanding, if that can then be a springboard for getting more in the future. That is the situation described in the recent movie The Wind That Shakes The Barley, in which the Irish rebels against British rule are given a compromise solution—to have part of Ireland free, as the Irish Free State. In the movie, Irish brother fights against brother over whether to accept this compromise. But at least the acceptance of that compromise, however short of justice, created the Irish Free State. The withdrawal timetable proposed by the Democrats gets nothing tangible, only a promise, and leaves the fulfillment of that promise in the hands of the Bush Administration.

There have been similar dilemmas for the labor movement. Indeed, it is a common occurrence that unions, fighting for a new contract, must decide if they will accept an offer that gives them only part of what they have demanded. It’s always a difficult decision, but in almost all cases, whether the compromise can be considered a victory or a defeat, the workers have been given some thing palpable, improving their condition to some degree. If they were offered only a promise of something in the future, while continuing an unbearable situation in the present, it would not be considered a compromise, but a sellout. A union leader who said, “Take this, it’s the best we can get” (which is what the MoveOn people are saying about the Democrats’ resolution) would be hooted off the platform.

I am reminded of the situation at the 1964 Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, when the black delegation from Mississippi asked to be seated, to represent the 40 percent black population of that state. They were offered a “compromise”—two nonvoting seats. “This is the best we can get,” some black leaders said. The Mississippians, led by Fannie Lou Hamer and Bob Moses, turned it down, and thus held on to their fighting spirit, which later brought them what they had asked for. That mantra—“the best we can get”—is a recipe for corruption.

It is not easy, in the corrupting atmosphere of Washington, D.C., to hold on firmly to the truth, to resist the temptation of capitulation that presents itself as compromise. A few manage to do so. I think of Barbara Lee, the one person in the House of Representatives who, in the hysterical atmosphere of the days following 9/11, voted against the resolution authorizing Bush to invade Afghanistan. Today, she is one of the few who refuse to fund the Iraq War, insist on a prompt end to the war, reject the dishonesty of a false compromise.

Except for the rare few, like Barbara Lee, Maxine Waters, Lynn Woolsey, and John Lewis, our representatives are politicians, and will surrender their integrity, claiming to be “realistic.”

We are not politicians, but citizens. We have no office to hold on to, only our consciences, which insist on telling the truth. That, history suggests, is the most realistic thing a citizen can do.

Howard Zinn is the author, most recently, of “A Power Governments Cannot Suppress.”

Ah, Those Aussies

http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,9294,2-10-1462_2088638,00.html

3/25/2007

Mar. 29, Sandhills CC, Journey Thru Islam

Mark your calendars for 3/29 at 7:00PM
Crossing the Line, A Journey Through Islam



Thursday March 29th at 7:00pm in Stone 111 Sandhills Community College
Learning Resources will host a very special presentation by
local photo journalist Laura Gingerich.

In October 2006, Ms Gingerich traveled through the Middle East, to Lebanon , the West Bank ,
Pakistan and Afghanistan documenting the relief efforts of Life for Relief and Development.
Life for Relief and Development is a Muslim organization based in the U.S.

Just a few months prior, Beirut and much of Lebanon was ravaged by a war between
the Israeli and Hezbollah armed forces. Laura's talk will feature
the National Geographic quality photographs
of her exploration, as a western woman traveling on her own,
through this critically important part of our world.

This program is the signature event for "2007, A Year of Moore Exploration",
a collaboration between
  • Sandhills Boyd Library
  • Southern Pines Library
  • Given Library
  • O'Neal School Library
  • Moore County Public Library
  • The First Health Library
  • Moore County Public School libraries
This program is free and open to the public.
Ms. Gingerich's photographs are scheduled to be on display in
the Boyd Library Hastings Gallery through June and July of this year.

3/23/2007

Medical Rethink

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4557223.stm

NC Birding Trail, Weymouth Woods, Mar. 29

You are invited to an informational meeting
The NC Birding Trail
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Registration begins at 1:30pm
Weymouth Woods Sandhills Nature Preserve, Southern Pines, NC

We hope to attract a broad range of interests from the greater Sandhills area: site managers and natural resource agencies, tourism councils, local community leaders, and more. The meeting will include information about:
  • The NC Birding Trail history, background and progress
  • Economic and community development potential
  • Conservation education opportunities
  • What to expect as we develop the Trail in the Piedmont region
Please respond to this email by March 26th if you plan to attend. This will be our last informational meeting scheduled for the Piedmont region, so if you haven't been able to attend one of our other meetings, this will be your best chance to learn more about the NC Birding Trail and get your questions answered.

North Carolina Birding Trail
c/o North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission
1722 Mail Service Center Raleigh NC 27699-1722
(919) 604-5183
www.ncbirdingtrail.org info@ncbirdingtrail.org

3/22/2007

MetroFarm

http://www.metrofarm.com/mf_Food_Chain_Radio.php

School Lunches

"Lunch Lady" With a Mission: Getting Kids to Eat Healthy
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/032107HB.shtml
Driven to reform school lunches as concerns grow over childhood obesity and diabetes, Ann Cooper is not your typical lunch lady. The former chef, who spent much of her 30-plus-year career working in white-tablecloth restaurants and catering for celebrities, is now best known as the "Lunch Lady" in Berkeley, California, schools. In cafeterias there she has tossed out fried, frozen and sugary foods and replaced them with fresh, seasonal, and mostly organic meals.

IMPORTANT!

http://www.pollinator.org/multimedia.htm

3/19/2007

Experts Agree, It's the Warming

The number of these stories grows from one a week to four a day...even corporations want policy now:
World's Most Important Crops Hit by Global Warming Effects
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/031907EA.shtml
Global warming over the past quarter-century has led to a fall in the yield of some of the most important food crops in the world, according to one of the first scientific studies of how climate change has affected cereal crops. Rising temperatures between1981 and 2002 caused a loss in production of wheat, corn and barley that amounted in effect to some 40 million tons a year.

Shawn Dell Joyce Sustainable Living:
Scientists Have Plan to FightWarming
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/031907EB.shtml
"What if I told you that we already have everything we need to resolve the crisis of global warming, except action? Would you believe me? How about believing two Princeton University economists?" asks Shawn Dell Joyce.

Statistical Analysis Debunks Climate Change Naysayers
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/031907EC.shtml
Despite the fact that the hundreds of scientists and reviewers on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change announced February 2nd in Paris that global warming is "very likely" caused by human activity, governments and other policy-makers may still justify inaction because of naysayers like Danish weather scientist Henrik Svensmark, who maintains that global climate change can be attributed to the proportion of cosmic rays in our atmosphere.

Investors to Press US Congress on Global Warming
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/031907ED.shtml
Joining a rising corporate chorus itching to sink money into clean energy projects, big investors will press the US Congress to pass laws attempting to tackle global warming. The dozens of investors include Merrill Lynch, The Capital Group, and the California Public Employees Retirement System, the largest US pension fund, said a source at Ceres, a Boston-based coalition of investors and environmentalists.

Still Big Oil

[Investment tip: Exxon-Mobil has virtually no investment strategy for alternative fuels, so that corporation is a poor bet on where to put your money. Go Green.]

It's STILL the oil: Secret Condi Meeting on Oil Before Invasion
by Greg PalastSunday, March 18, 2007

Four years ago this week, the tanks rolled for what President Bush originally called, "Operation Iraqi Liberation" -- O.I.L. I kid you not.

And it was four years ago that, from the White House, George Bush, declaring war, said, "I want to talk to the Iraqi people." That Dick Cheney didn't tell Bush that Iraqis speak Arabic … well, never mind. I expected the President to say something like, "Our troops are coming to liberate you, so don't shoot them."

Instead, Mr. Bush told, the Iraqis,"Do not destroy oil wells."

Nevertheless, the Bush Administration said the war had nothing to do with Iraq's oil. Indeed, in 2002, the State Department stated, and its official newsletter, the Washington Post, repeated, that State's Iraq study group, "does not have oil on its list of issues."

But now, we've learned that, despite protestations to the contrary, Condoleezza Rice held a secret meeting with the former Secretary-General of OPEC, Fadhil Chalabi, an Iraqi, and offered Chalabi the job of Oil Minister for Iraq. (It is well established that the President of the United States may appoint the cabinet ministers of another nation if that appointment is confirmed by the 101st Airborne.)

In all the chest-beating about how the war did badly, no one seems to remember how the war did very, very well -- for Big Oil.

The war has kept Iraq's oil production to 2.1 million barrels a day from pre-war, pre-embargo production of over 4 million barrels. In the oil game, that's a lot to lose. In fact, the loss of Iraq's 2 million barrels a day is equal to the entire planet's reserve production capacity.

In other words, the war has caused a hell of a supply squeeze -- and Big Oil just loves it. Oil today is $57 a barrel versus the $18 a barrel price under Bill "Love-Not-War" Clinton.

Since the launch of Operation Iraqi Liberation, Halliburton stock has tripled to $64 a share -- not, as some believe, because of those Iraq reconstruction contracts -- peanuts for Halliburton. Cheney's former company's main business is "oil services." And, as one oilman complained to me, Cheney's former company has captured a big hunk of the rise in oil prices by jacking up the charges for Halliburton drilling and piping equipment.

But before we shed tears for Big Oil's having to hand Halliburton its slice, let me note that the value of the reserves of the five biggest oil companies more than doubled during the war to $2.36 trillion.

And that was the plan: putting a new floor under the price of oil. I've have that in writing. In 2005, after a two-year battle with the State and Defense Departments, they released to my team at BBC Newsnight the "Options for a Sustainable Iraqi Oil Industry." Now, you might think our government shouldn't be writing a plan for another nation's oil. Well, our government didn't write it, despite the State Department seal on the cover. In fact, we discovered that the 323-page plan was drafted in Houston by oil industry executives and consultants.

The suspicion is that Bush went to war to get Iraq's oil. That's not true. The document, and secret recordings of those in on the scheme, made it clear that the Administration wanted to make certain America did not get the oil. In other words, keep the lid on Iraq's oil production -- and thereby keep the price of oil high.

Of course, the language was far more subtle than, "Let's cut Iraq's oil production and jack up prices." Rather, the report uses industry jargon and euphemisms which require Iraq to remain an obedient member of the OPEC cartel and stick to the oil-production limits -- "quotas" -- which keep up oil prices.

The Houston plan, enforced by an army of occupation, would, "enhance [Iraq's] relationship with OPEC," the oil cartel.

And that's undoubtedly why Condoleezza Rice asked Fadhil Chalabi to take charge of Iraq's Oil Ministry. As former chief operating officer of OPEC, the oil cartel, Fadhil was a Big Oil favorite, certain to ensure that Iraq would never again allow the world to slip back to the Clinton era of low prices and low profits. (In investigating for BBC, I was told by the former chief of the CIA's oil unit that he'd met with Fadhil regarding oil at Bush's request. Fadhil recently complained to the BBC. He denied the meeting with the Bush emissary in London because, he noted, he was secretly meeting that week in Washington with Condi!)

Fadhil, by the way, turned down Condi's offer to run Iraq's Oil Ministry. Ultimately, Iraq's Oil Ministry was given to Fadhil's fellow tribesman, Ahmad Chalabi, a convicted bank swindler and neo-con idol. But whichever Chalabi is nominal head of Iraq's oil industry in Baghdad, the orders come from Houston. Indeed, the oil law adopted by Iraq's shaky government this month is virtually a photocopy of the "Options" plan first conceived in Texas long before Iraq was "liberated."

In other words, the war has gone exactly to plan -- the Houston plan.

So forget the naïve cloth-rending about a conflict gone haywire. Exxon-Mobil reported a record $10 billion profit last quarter, the largest of any corporation in history. Mission Accomplished.

Greg Palast is the author of the New York Times bestseller, Armed Madhouse: From Baghdad to New Orleans -- Sordid Secrets and Strange Tales of a White House Gone Wild. A new edition, updated and expanded, will be released April 24.
Palast hits the road with the new Armed Madhouse tour beginning April 21 in Chicago; then to Madison, Portland, Eugene, San Francisco, San Jose, Los Angeles, Santa Fe, New York (with Randi Rhodes) and Washington. The original tour was sponsored by Code Pink, Buzzflash, Working Assets, DemocracyNow! and many more. Add your group to the list by contacting us.
Watch Palast's original BBC Newsnight Report.
Subscribe to Palast's writings at www.GregPalast.com

Governed by Fear

In his first inaugural address in 1932, President Franklin D. Roosevelt famously warned: "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself." His was a positive vision of a future in which fear would be put in its place by a society that believed in itself. Today, whether through color-coded terror alerts, the specter of mushroom clouds, or the fears of new global pandemics, our political leaders seem intent on inciting our fears.

But what does it mean to govern by fear?

In the last of NY Salon's series of conversations about fear in contemporary society, The Nation's Christopher Hayes, The Economist's Megan McArdle and Sociology Professor Frank Furedi will discuss the social, cultural, and political dimensions of fear in a special talk this Tuesday in New York City, March 20, 7:00 to 8:30pm, The New School, New York City

Featuring:
Christopher Hayes, Puffin Writing Fellow, Nation Institute; Contributing Writer, The Nation
Frank Furedi, Professor of Scoiology at the University of Kent in Canterbury
Megan McArdle, Countries Editor, The Economist
Moderated by Jean Smith, Director, NY Salon

Click here to read speakers papers and for further info.

Money Sent Home

L America migrant money tops aid
By Duncan Kennedy BBC News, Mexico City

Remittances could reach $100bn in four years' time
The amount of money sent home by Latin American migrant workers to their families has reached more than $62bn.
This figure now exceeds the combined total of all direct foreign investment and foreign aid to Latin America.
According to the Inter-American Investment Bank, the figure could reach $100bn in four years' time.
The biggest share of money, $23bn, was sent back to Mexico, mostly from workers living in the United States remitting small sums each month.
Foreign remittances now rank along with oil and tourism as Mexico's biggest foreign currency earner.
The Inter-American Development Bank, which supports the region with aid and other help, says the remittances will increase by about 15% a year during the next four years.
The bank describes the money as a very effective poverty reduction programme because it keeps between 8m and 10m families above the poverty line.
But it says it also means the economies of the region are not generating enough jobs to keep workers from leaving in the first place.
Another problem is that much of the money is sent back in small amounts and so it is difficult to track.
The average is between $100 and $150 a month.
That in turn makes it an unpredictable source of revenue for governments to tap into. The bank says it wants people to get away from what it calls cash to cash flows and into account to account transfers but the bank says the recent crackdown on illegal immigrants by the US authorities could hinder efforts to get migrants to use banks.

3/18/2007

SOS for Polar Bears

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ua8jF1ZPaAU

The Slow Food Revolution

[Hey, maybe Southern Pines could be a slow city. . .]

The first Slow Food film of 2007 will be shown in Winston Salem at Parkway United Church of Christ, Fellowship Hall, 2151 Silas Creek Parkway (corner of Irving St. and across from Forsyth Tech). Parking lot accessible via Irving St.

Meet-up begins at 7:00 p.m., and the movie will begin at 7:30. Admission is free but we encourage donations to Slow Food to help defray the cost of our programs. Contact Laura Frazier for more info: 336-971-3834.

Tuesday, March 20, 2007: "The Slow Food Revolution""Traditional foods are at risk of disappearing forever, as a speed-obsessed world turns increasingly to fast foods. To counter this trend, there is an international gastro-economic movement known as Slow Food. Its aim is to protect traditional culture, the environment and biodiversity by encouraging regional food production. The movement is now active in 45 countries.

"This film travels around the globe to record this phenomenon. Italy is the home of the Slow Food movement and there is a revival of growing such regional foods as Bronte pistachios, Sorrento lemons and the original Neopolitan tomatoes. Towns, like Orvieto, have declared themselves to be "slow cities," free of fast food outlets, neon and noise.

"In Mexico indigenous farming communities have revived ancient ways, cultivating vanilla beans and the nutritious amaranth. In Australia there is an increasing interest in Aboriginal knowledge of native "bush tucker" and a school program reconnects children to the land and its riches. The Botanical Ark in Queensland grows endangered food from all over the world, saving plants from extinction.

Beautifully photographed, Slow Food Revolution is a celebration of the sustainability, seasonality and quality of the earth's bounty."

(Description from www.filmakers.com/indivs/SlowFood.htm.)

The Season's Last Concert, Mar. 23

The Rooster’s Wife
presents

Doug and Telisha Williams
in
A House Concert

March 23, 2007 8 p.m.

Corner of High and Blue
Downtown Aberdeen

R.S.V.P. 944-7502
or

3/17/2007

Weekend March on The Pentagon, One Man's Journey

Exploding Into Action

Posted on Mar 13, 2007
By Amy Goodman

The United States is entering the fifth year of its violent, failed occupation of Iraq, a war that has lasted longer than the U.S. was involved in World War II. Through the grimly deepening quagmire, a strengthening, pervasive U.S. antiwar movement is emerging. An increasingly powerful voice comes from soldiers and their families, turning grief into action. Take the Arredondo family.

On Aug. 25, 2004—Carlos Arredondo’s 44th birthday—a U.S. Marine van arrived outside his house. He thought that his son Alex had managed to come home from his second deployment to Iraq to surprise him. Instead, the Marines informed him that Alex had been killed in action in Najaf.

Carlos lost his mind. He asked, he begged, the Marines to leave. He pleaded. They didn’t leave, so he ran to his garage and grabbed a hammer, gasoline and a blowtorch. He began pummeling the van. He climbed in, pouring the gasoline. His mother, distraught and wailing, tried to pull him from the van. The blowtorch accidentally sparked, and Carlos was blown from the van into the yard, in flames.

Then his wife, Melida, arrived. She saw her husband burning. Carlos’ younger son, Brian, 16 years old, in Bangor, Maine, later saw the incident on television. This was the day he learned that the brother he loved and emulated was dead.

Carlos suffered burns on more than one-quarter of his body. The physical healing was the easy part. It is the emotional healing that he pursues in his tireless and remarkable odyssey to end the war. To honor Alex’s memory, he has been crisscrossing the country, from Capitol Hill to Crawford, Texas, pulling a flag-draped coffin. He calls it his public mourning: “I want the caskets coming home to be very public. The government doesn’t want you to see them.”

Carlos stopped for a few days this week in New York. He parked outside the military recruiting station in Times Square, where activists have established what they call the Endless War Memorial. For six days ending Friday, March 16, sunrise to sunset, hundreds of people are taking turns reading the names of the Iraq war dead—all the dead whose names could be discovered. The roughly 3,200 U.S. military fatalities, the other “coalition” casualties, the journalists and the 7,733 Iraqi names they were able to find. The organizers point out that there are 200 unnamed dead Iraqis for each of the thousands they have gathered (based on a study by the British medical journal Lancet that estimated more than 650,000 Iraqi dead).

The scene is surreal and unforgettable. Passers-by stop by the flag-draped coffin Carlos has rolled out of the back of his pickup truck. There are Army boots of loved ones lost, and large photos of grieving Iraqi women and one of Alex in an open casket. This is all set against the massive video display atop the recruiting station. Among its slogans: “There is nothing on this green earth stronger than the US Army.” Above that, an even larger display promotes Fox News and Bill O’Reilly and flashes phrases like “Gitmo justice.” The famous Dow Jones news zipper runs its endless recitation of stock quotes and the daily count of dead and injured. A video ad for sunglasses flashes the words “Never Hide.”

Carlos is heading next to Washington, D.C., to lead this weekend’s march on the Pentagon.

As we part, Carlos shows me the latest recruiting letter sent to his son Brian. It contains a fake red, white and blue credit card with Brian’s name on it. It says: “This is not a credit card. It is money in the bank.” An earlier letter promises him a bonus of up to $20,000. “What can you do with $20,000? A new car? Pay off credit cards? Help your family? ... Remember the decisions you are making right now will have a huge impact on how the rest of your life turns out.” Which is exactly why Carlos prays his surviving son will not join up.

Meanwhile, around the corner, each name read represents a once living, breathing, complex human being whose life was snuffed out as a result of this four-year-old war. Alongside the named dead are living people, like Carlos, following their consciences, making connections, building a movement, each day bringing the end of the war one day closer.

Amy Goodman is the host of “Democracy Now!” a daily international TV/radio news hour airing on 500 stations in North America.
© 2007 Amy Goodman; distributed by King Features Syndicate

Purification Ritual

Mayan Leaders Perform Purification Ritual Following Bush Visit In Guatemala

Mayan spiritual leaders conducted a purification ritual Thursday at a pyramid President Bush visited earlier this week.

The Mayans had led protests against Bush’s trip to the Iximche ruins.

Mayan leader Jorge Morales Toj: "The purpose of the ceremony is to get rid of the bad spirits, to saturate this ancestral place and to ask for better and good paths."

And Here in The Americas

Ex-CIA agent blasts White House
Ex-CIA agent Valerie Plame says senior US officials "recklessly"revealed her secret identity in 2003.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/-/2/hi/americas/6460227.stm

$4.4bn debt relief for L America
Five of the poorest nations in Latin America and the Caribbean are to have their $4.4bn (£2.3bn) debt cancelled.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/-/2/hi/americas/6461277.stm

Mexico City embraces gay unions
The first civil partnerships among same-sex couples are celebrated in Mexico City under new legislation.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/-/2/hi/americas/6461159.stm

3/16/2007

It's the Oil

Bolivian oil bill to go to senate
Bolivia's lower house passes legislation that increases taxes on foreign oil companies.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/-/2/hi/americas/6451233.stm

Profit Determines Food Policy

"If you go back to the Great Depression or before - and frankly for much of our sojourn on earth - people couldn't afford to eat meat twice or three times a day. We ate beans and vegetables and fruits and things, much of it coming from our own gardens." Terrence McNally

How to Solve the Diabetes Epidemic
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/031407HA.shtml

The government and the food industry know that diabetes is linked to lifestyle and diet; yet profit continues to determine food policy, and nutrition remains a scant part of medical education. Dr. Neal Barnard offers a solution to the crisis.

Warmest Since 1880

Winter warmth breaks all records
This year's winter in the northern hemisphere was the warmest since records began in 1880, US experts say.
Full story:http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/-/2/hi/science/nature/6456897.stm

3/15/2007

Equinox Fire, Drumming, Potluck, 3/21

Remember!
We celebrate Spring Equinox
at The Farm
Wed, Mar. 21 starting at 6:00 pm
Bring your favorite dish and a drum or music maker
Join in celebrating balance and
The beginningof Spring

Court Halt on GMO Alfalfa

Court Halt on GMO Alfalfa Shows USDA Failure
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/031507O.shtml
A court decision overturning US government approval for a Monsanto biotech alfalfa
underscores complaints made for years that the USDA is failing to adequately oversee genetically-altered crops. US District Court Judge Charles Breyer of the NorthernDistrict of California immediately halted seed sales and ordered that any planting must cease after March 30 following his determination that the USDA violated the law in allowing unrestricted commercial planting of the crop. The judge said theUSDA should have prepared an environmental impact statement before deregulating the Roundup Ready alfalfa.

Center for Global Initiatives, American South

The UNC Humanities Program would like you to know about an exciting program at UNC Chapel Hill.
On April 19 and 20, the Center for Global Initiatives will host a conference entitled Navigating the Global American South.
With a focus on public health, this conference will explore regional approaches to public health and examine the interaction of these issues between the American South and other world regions.
To receive the discounted rate of $80 ($25 for students) please register by March 16 at:

globalsouth.unc.edu
For more information, please visit globalsouth.unc.edu
or contact gi@unc.edu.Wayne J. Pond Director

3/14/2007

A Sad Alliance

http://www.colorofchange.org/cbci/?id=2450-79033

GM Rice

If you'd like to contact the US Dept of Agriculture about this, here's there contact info:

U.S. Department of Agriculture
1400 Independence Ave., S.W. Washington, DC 20250
Deputy Administrator,
Legislative & Public Affairs Courtney Billet
courtney.r.billet@aphis.usda.gov
202-720-2511 FAX 202-720-3982
Rm 1147-S Washington, DC 20250

Human genes in rice spark new GM row
By Stephen Daniells 06/03/2007

Genetically modified rice containing human genes has received preliminary approval in the US, sparking new concerns and fears on both sides of the Atlantic. California-based Ventria Bioscience has received approval from the US Department of Agriculture to cultivate over 3,000 acres of the rice in Kansas. The issue of GM approval within the EU is one of the most contentious in agriculture.

The recent announcement that US authorities had traced amounts of unapproved genetically modified (GM) food in samples of rice prompted the EU to clamp down on all imports from the US. The immediacy of this action illustrated the stringent controls the EU has in place to guard against unauthorised products entering the food chain, and also reflected consumer fears over the technology.

The new rice is genetically engineered to produce lactiva and lysomin - two proteins found naturally in breast milk, and reported to have significant potential against diarrhoea. Indeed, a clinical trial using the rice has been published in the Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition, and reports that 140 children suffering from diarrhoea and admitted to the hospital recovered significantly quicker and were less likely to relapse after taking an electrolyte solution containing lactiva and lysomin than children in the placebo group. "Diarrhoeal illnesses are a major reason for children seeing their physician and a major cause of emergency room visits," said Robert Wittler, from Kansas University School of Medicine at Wichita. "This is an important study as decreasing the duration of diarrhoea lessens the likelihood of children becoming significantly dehydrated and allows children to return to day-care and school quicker and their parents who work outside the home can return to work sooner."

Despite the potential benefits against childhood diarrhoea - the second leading killer of under-fives globally - the news has been described as "very disturbing" by GeneWatch UK, according to the Daily Mail. Researcher Becky Price: "There are huge, huge health risks and people should rightly be concerned about this."

Moreover, Friends of the Earth, campaigners against GM that have been propagating the opinion that GM foods should be banned from the food chain because they posed a potential risk to health, have also been putting their viewpoint across.

Campaigner Clare Oxborrow told the Daily Mail: "Using food crops and fields as glorified drug factories is a very worrying development. "

If these pharmaceutical crops end up on consumers' plates, the consequences for our health could be devastating. "The biotech industry has already failed to prevent experimental GM rice contaminating the food chain. "The Government must urge the U.S. to ban the production of drugs in food crops. It must also introduce tough measures to prevent illegal GM crops contaminating our food and ensure that biotech companies are liable for any damage their products cause."

"Life is a Mystery to be Lived, not a Problem to be Solved"
FarmGirl Arts & Consulting
Laura C Frazier, M.A., M.Div.
Kernersville, NC 27284
(336) 971-3834

Contra Dance Saturday

SANDHILLS CONTRA DANCERS
2007 SPRING SCHEDULE

March 17 with Tremblay’s Dream
April 28 (to be announced)
May 29 with Corner House

Lesson at 7:30 p.m.
Dance from 8:00 to 11:00

Old West End Gym
137 Old West End School Rd.
Off NC HWY 211
West End, NC

Adult Non-members: $8.00
Student Non-members: $6.00
12 and under: $1.00

The SCDS is a nonprofit educational organization dedicated to
the preservation, study, teaching, enjoyment and continuing evolution
of traditional and historical dance, music and song.

Visit us at: www.geocities.com/sandhillscontradancers

US Mortgage Market, World Economy

World stocks tumble on US fears
European stocks drop as fears about the US economy and mortgage market hit Asia and Wall Street.
Full story:http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/-/2/hi/business/6448719.stm

Vets for Peace, Fayetteville

http://www.veteransforpeace.org/Fayetteville_schedule_2007.vp.html

GM Corn Toxicity

Strong Suspicions of Toxicity in One GMO Corn
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/031307T.shtml
The controversy over the innocuousness of Monsanto's transgenic corn MON863 should resume after the March 13 publication in "Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology," of a study suggesting this genetically modified organism is toxic to the liver and kidneys.

Canaries and Honey Bees

You can think of bees the way that miners used to think of canaries. The canary would, because of its smaller size and faster metabolism, react to bad air quickly. In considering honey bee colony collapse and multiple bee diseases and pests, and, given the ways that agribusiness develops and uses stronger and stronger chemicals, one can extrapolate an early warning system for humans.

3/13/2007

Your Local Farmers Mkt

Local farmers/gardeners need your second-hand plastic plant pots. You can call Maureen (692-9413) or leave pots at her house. Thanks!

New! The Pig

http://www.greenpeace.org/international/news/monsanto-pig-patent-111

List of GM Foods

[By the way, did we know that Monsanto invented pigs?]http://www.truefoodnow.org/shoppersguide/guide_printable.html

Peace March, Sat., March 17

Marching for Peace
Saturday, March 17
Fayetteville NC
The march begins at noon
Pre-rally show at the Health Dept parking lot at 10 am.
The Rally starts at 1 pm
Rowan Park, Fayetteville
To carpool, Moore County folks meet in the parking lot
behind the Sunrise Theater
10:00

Beyond Quagmire

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/13710030/leaving_iraq_the_grim_truth

IMPORTANT This Tuesday Evening, TODAY

Town Council Public Hearing on
the adoption of
a Planned Urban Development (PUD)
for Southern Pines
Douglass Community Center
Pennsylvania Ave
Tuesday 7:00 PM

3/12/2007

Goodness Goes Mainstream!

http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,20070312,00.html

Moore Co. Beekeepers, Mar. 13

Monthly meeting, Moore County Beekeepers
7:00, Tuesday, Mar. 13
Ag. Extension Building, Carthage

Green Roofing

Green Roofs: Building for the Future
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/030607EC.shtml

From the US Food and Drug Administration building in Washington, DC, to Heinz Corporate headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pa., an increasing number of buildings are swapping shingles for sedums. The movement is called green roofing, but, far from an industrial paint job, it evolves around technology that's ecologically sound - and proving so useful that some major cities and the entire state of Maryland are eagerly exploiting the potential of this once-forgotten facade.

3/07/2007

Henside the Beltline, Urban Chicken Tour

http://www.five-points.org/news/
Scroll down to find urban chicken tour, Raleigh.

It's Growing!

http://www.stepitup2007.org//index.php

Pinehurst and Pine Trees in Conflict

[written by Paul Dunn]

The Village of Pinehurst and the axing of 92 trees

The Village of Pinehurst, at the request of Pinehurst Resorts, has entered into an agreement with DOT wherein DOT will remove 92 mature trees to make way for a traffic roundabout to be located at the intersection of Carolina Vista and Highway NC 2. This is the spot where Carolina Hotel guests walk, ride or cycle from the hotel to the famed Pinehurst Members Club, golf courses, tennis courts and back. The State will replace each axed tree with a tree of similar variety but of much smaller size.

Two weeks ago I asked DOT and Village officials just how many trees were going to be sacrificed upon the altar of progress, and believe it or not, they hadn’t a clue as to how many were to be removed until the trees were counted last week. In other words, the Village council members and Mayor of Pinehurst had no idea of how many trees they were causing to be destroyed when they agreed to a controversial DOT-built roundabout. Many of the town’s famed Longleaf Pines to be removed are well over 100 years of age. Some are up to 30 inches in size.

When I brought this somewhat startling fact to the attention of a council person who has expressed environmental interests, the reaction was, “The trees which are 100 years of age are going to die shortly anyway. And yes, I think most of us will be proud of the results.” I found that a somewhat startling statement, given that Federal and State Forestry experts advise that Longleaf Pines, Pinus Palustris typically grow until age 125 to 150 years and that healthy ones should live 200 or 300 years. Good specimens typically reach 55 to 80 feet. Some of the pines to be cut down were probably planted at the direction of Frederick Law Olmstead’s associates and James Walker Tufts, the founder of the community.

Pinehurst has a mixed record on the environment when it comes to trees and specifically pines. It has fostered civic interest in a public park and arboretum, while at the same time it did not lift a finger to protect not a hundred, but perhaps more than a thousand Longleaf Pines that were clear cut by the developer of the lands behind the Lawn and Tennis Club last year. You would think that a community named “Pinehurst” would have an unusual affinity for pine trees and do all in its power to protect them. Instead it has asked that some of its most beautiful ones be destroyed by the Department of Transportation to make way for a seriously flawed road project, flawed because it will neither improve traffic flow or safety, particularly as it has been designed without strong night lighting.

A recent mailing by the Village government to its citizens announcing this folly describes the project as having the “unanimous” approval of Village, DOT and the North Carolina Historic Preservation Office. Unfortunately, the facts are otherwise. Historic Preservation professionals have opposed the roundabout from the first moment they heard of it, and still object to it because, as they’ve indicated, it “adversely affects a Federal Historic Landmark District.”

The only reason that cut down trees will be replaced is because the Historic Preservation Office insisted upon it in mitigation of the significant damage to be caused to the Landmark District. In a recent teleconference meeting between Pinehurst, DOT and the Historic Preservation Office, the Village stipulated that the roundabout had “overwhelming citizen support.” This is a curious claim because there has never been research conducted in which the citizens were shown the exact plan proposed by DOT and asked to either comment or vote upon it. In the past, when citizens were asked to comment informally upon a multitude of transportation options for the Village, many favored roundabouts as a general concept, but none were ever given specific facts about the plan as now proposed by DOT for Carolina Vista and NC 2.

When Village officials were shown the DOT plans, instead of holding public meetings to get citizen input on the proposal, they simply gave DOT the green light to proceed. They also failed to ask its own, recently-appointed Pinehurst Historic Preservation Commission to comment on the plans and make recommendations.

Federal government officials, representing those who originally bestowed important US Landmark Status on Pinehurst are also concerned about the DOT project, but because no federal funds are being used by DOT to build the roundabout the feds have kept silent on the project. The newly created Pinehurst Historic Preservation Commission has also remained quiet at the direction of Village officials.

Meanwhile, a group calling itself the Concerned Citizens of Pinehurst has begun advertising facts about the roundabout. To date hundreds of Pinehurst residents have joined it to protest the project to Village and DOT. They object to the project on environmental and historic preservation grounds. They’ve pointed out that the roundabout will destroy much of George Marshall Park and significantly disturb the road designs of Frederick Law Olmstead. They’ve also raised myriad traffic safety concerns that remain unanswered by the Department of Transportation.

The Concerned Citizens of Pinehurst requested that the Mayor and Council “consider holding a public hearing on this important issue and… receive public comment” on the roundabout. Mayor Steve Smith predictably advised the citizens group that the “council has determined there is no need to have public hearings on this matter.” If Pinehurst residents or anyone who treasures the village’s historic traditions wish to stop the DOT roundabout it seems that they’ll either have to storm the village hall, or get the ear of Governor Easley.

One of the ironies of this sorry project is that when it is being constructed, traffic to and from the Pinehurst Country Club will probably be routed into and out of the Members Club area via Village Green East. That’s because the present day exit at Carolina Vista and NC 2 will be closed, perhaps for months. Many who’ve studied the traffic situation there have suggested to DOT, the Village and Pinehurst Resorts that Village Green East be used permanently to funnel traffic out of the club area so that dangerous left turns onto NC – 2 can be totally eliminated. Were such a low cost alternative plan adopted the roundabout would not be needed, and 92 valuable trees would still grace the Landmark Historic District.

Why worry about 92 old trees? Maybe just because they’re there.

Paul R. Dunn is co-author of Great Donald Ross Golf Courses You Can Play
paulandbj@nc.rr.com

3/05/2007

The Land Belongs

The Working Group on the Environment in Latin America presents
"The Land belongs to those who work it"
A film from the Chiapas Media Project
Duke University, LSRC B101, Love Auditorium
7 pm, March 8, 2006

This film depicts a tense meeting that pits Zapatista leaders against Mexican bureaucrats who sold their communal land to a private company intending to build an eco-tourist center.

This rare footage exposes the battle Third World farmers face in preserving their way of life.

The Chiapas Media Project (CMP) provides tools and training that enable marginalized indigenous communities in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas to create their own media. Working bi-nationally, CMP provides video cameras and editing equipment along with appropriate training to communities in Chiapas.

The project also provides computer technology and training. With the equipment and instruction, communities are empowered to tell their own stories in their own words.

We hope to see you there!
The Working Group on the Environment in Latin America (WGELA) is part of the The Consortium in Latin American and Caribbean Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University.

Equinox Fire, Drumming, Potluck, 3/21

Wednesday, March 21, 6 pm
Equinox at The Farm
Bring a favorite potluck dish and
your drum(s) or any music making devise
Celebrate Balance and
the Beginning of Spring!
Jesse Wimberley
Lighterwood Farm
P.O. Box 758, WestEnd NC
910 673-2826
or Maureen, 910 692-9413

3/02/2007

At Least As Big

UN chief warns on climate change
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon says global warming poses at least as big a threat to the world as war.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/-/2/hi/in_depth/6410305.stm

3/01/2007

Plea to Not Bomb

http://www.msmagazine.com/news/uswirestory.asp?ID=10174

Only 92 trees

[from Moore Co. resident Paul Dunn]
As a full page advertisment in the Pilot announced on Sunday, the Village of Pinehurst is determined to see a roundabout built at the meeting of Carolina Vista and NC 2. This will cause a great deal of dislocation in the community for months. It will result in the State expending an estimated $500,000 to $750,000. It will not improve traffic flow at the site because the traffic light at NC 2 and NC 5 will still remain, albeit there will be a modest improvement in the turning lanes at that location.

Until last week no one had actually counted the number of trees to be axed by the contractors. A surprising fact but none the less true. As a matter of fact, DOT originally had no specific plans for replacing destroyed trees. Now there is an unsatisfactory plan mandated by the State's Historic Preservation Office, (HPO), which requires one tree to replace each tree axed. A small pine is hardly a replacement for a mature pine!

HPO has repeatedly informed Pinehurst and DOT that the roundabout plan is still objectionable on many counts. This agency has repeatedly informed Village and State officials that the Pinehurst requested roundabout "adversely effects the historic district in which Carolina Vista and NC -2 lies." Which, if you are not familiar with it, is in the very heart of the Federally Landmarked Historic District. Pinehurst's representative to a conference call meeting of HPO and DOT informed the State that the project had "overwhelming citizen support," according "to a poll of 400 households."

You may find that fact as startling as I did when I heard it today. Minutes of that meeting may be received by contacting State employee Jeff Crow at Jeff.Crow@ncmail.net

When the issue of the 92 trees, (some of which are est'd to be 100 years old) was brought to the attention of one council member in Pinehurst, she said today, "The trees which are 100 years of age are going to die shortly anyway. And yes, I think most of us will be proud of the results."

So much for environmental concern! I pointed out to her that the US and NC Forestry Services both advise that a typical Longleaf Pine does not reach its full size until about 125 to 150 years of age and that healthy ones should live 200 to 300 years.

19 members of the Concerned Citizens of Pinehurst have written to Mayor and Council asking for a public hearing on "this important issue." Over 100 families have responded to the Pilot advertisement in support of Concerned Citizens of Pinehurst, and envelopes are coming in daily.

If you agree that this is an important environmental and historic issue you may wish to contact Concerned Citizens: John Marcum at jmarcum@nc.rr.com
or Bob Tufts, at rtufts@balsammountain.com
or write to the Mayor and Council or the Governor of North Carolina or to your State Representative, Joe Boylan.

You may also wish to contact members of Pinehurst's recently appointed Pinehurst Historic Preservation Commission, which was asked by a Village Official not--that's right, NOT--to get involved in this issue of historic relevance and to date the Commission has remained silent as requested.

DOT is expected to give out the contracts on this shortly and when they do they'll not want to be sued for non-performance, i.e. they would like to proceed with the public remaining silent or lawsuits from Concerned Citizens. If you are sympathetic to the goals of the Concerned Citizens on the tree issue and the roundabout project kindly pass this message along to your e-mail addressees in the Sandhills.

Thanks, Paul R. Dunn 235 0397

Global Warming and Food

How Global Warming Goes Against the Grain
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/022807EB.shtml
The place where most of the world's people could first begin to feel the consequences of global warming may come as a surprise: in the stomach, via the supper plate, according to a small but influential group of agricultural experts.