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Petition 9/11 Investigations - Kucinich Rocks the Boat - John Robbins' food revolution

09 March 2002



"I do believe that all God's creatures have the right to live as much as we have. Instead of prescribing the killing of the so-called injurious fellow creatures of ours as a duty, if men of knowledge had devoted their gift to discovering ways of dealing with them otherwise than by killing them, we would be living in a world befitting our status of men–animals endowed with reason and the power of choosing between good and evil, right and wrong, violence and non-violence, truth and untruth."

Mahatma Gandhi
H, 9 Jan. 1937

From a book compiled by R.K. Prabhu,
MOHAN-MALA - A Gandhian Rosary
Navajivan Publishing House - Ahmedabad-14




The first item is an online petition for the US Senate to investigate oddities regarding 9/11 Terrorist Attacks. Please support our right to know or to at least try to understand some of the shenanigans happening around that day. Perhaps some revelations will help expose distorted united fronts of terror and greed. If democracy is to survive, it must first awaken. Item 2 is from an article in the Nation about Dennis Kucinich "rocking the boat" and the impact of his speech on February 17 in the House of Reps. Item 3 is an informal briefing by Carol Rosin on the event on February 23rd with Dennis Kucinich to ban space-based weapons. This campaign has the potential of making an unprecedented ending for the arms race. So, stay flexible, petition for 9/11 investigations and support the campaign to ban space-based weapons. Visit ICIS's online fax system. Item 4 is from the first chapter of John Robbin's newest book, The Food Revolution. It is all so connected, our choices, what we take within and act upon. Keep listening.. and thanks for subscribing and for any actions you take for peace, justice, and truth.



1) Petition Senate -- Investigate Oddities Involving 9/11
2) Kucinich Rocks the Boat
3) Carol Rosin reports on Kucinich - H.R. 3616 - Rally in Malibu
4) John Robbins – The Food Revolution

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1) Petition Senate -- Investigate Oddities Involving 9/11


"Petition to the Senate to Investigate Oddities Involving 9/11 Terrorist Attacks"


To: The U.S. Senate

We, the undersigned, do hereby petition the Senate of the United States of America to thoroughly investigate the events surrounding the acts of terrorism that transpired in the United States on September 11, 2001. Such an investigation would include research into the following peculiarities relating to the terrorist attacks on the United States on 9/11:

1.) Thousands of put stock options that were purchased on United and American airlines immediately prior to 9/11/01

2.) Financial transactions totaling more than 100 million dollars that electronically passed through the World Trade Center immediately prior to its destruction on 9/11

3.) Black-box recordings from the four planes which crashed on 9/11

4.) Cell phone calls made by passengers on hijacked flights on 9/11 which never emerged on their cell-phone bills

5.) Interviews of any air-traffic controllers on duty on 9/11

6.) Eyewitness accounts detailing Flight 93's explosion prior to its crashing

7.) Aircraft debris strewn approximately seven miles from the crash site of Flight 93

8.) Unocal's role in its quest to build an oil pipeline across Afghanistan, plans implemented prior to 2001

9.) Carlyle Corporation's role in overseeing Unocal's quest to have an oil pipeline built across Afghanistan, plans implemented prior to 2001

10.) Role of remote-control software technology implemented in 9/11 hijackings and crashes

11.) George W. Bush's possible foreknowledge of the terrorist attacks on 9/11

12.) Role of the Northern Alliance in explosive growth of opium production in Afghanistan after U.S. military intervention


We respectfully petition the Senate to make public the results of this investigation.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned


http://www.petitiononline.com/11601TFS/petition.html


{The Petition to the Senate to Investigate Oddities Involving 9/11 Terrorist Attacks Petition to The U.S. Senate was created by Fall Out Shelter News and written by Lori R. Price. This petition is hosted at www.PetitionOnline.com as a public service.}

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2) Kucinich Rocks the Boat

THE NATION
COMMENT | March 25, 2002
Kucinich Rocks the Boat
by John Nichols

Dennis Kucinich never doubted that millions of Americans had deep concerns about George W. Bush's ever-expanding war on ill-defined foes abroad and on civil liberties at home. But the Congressional Progressive Caucus chair admits he underestimated the depth of the discomfort until February 17, when he delivered a speech to the Southern California Americans for Democratic Action, in which he declared, "Let us pray that our country will stop this war." Recalling the Congressional vote authorizing the President's response to the September 11 terrorist attacks--a resolution supported by Kucinich and all but one member of Congress, California Democrat Barbara Lee--the Ohioan thundered, "We did not authorize an eye for an eye. Nor did we ask that the blood of innocent people, who perished on September 11, be avenged with the blood of innocent villagers in Afghanistan. We did not authorize the Administration to wage war anytime, anywhere, anyhow it pleases. We did not authorize war without end. We did not authorize a permanent war economy. Yet we are upon the threshold of a permanent war economy."

Kucinich's "Prayer for America" speech was interrupted by repeated standing ovations. But the real measure of the message's resonance came as the text of the speech circulated on the Internet--where a genuine worldwide web of opposition to the Administration's actions led to the posting of Kucinich's words on websites (including www.thenation.com) and dispatched them via e-mail. Within days, Kucinich received 10,000-plus e-mails. Many echoed New Jerseyan Thomas Minet's sentiments "Since the 'Axis of Evil' State of the Union Address, I have been searching like Diogenes with his lantern for one honest person in Congress who would have the guts to speak out about the attack on Democracy being mounted by the Bush Administration. It has been a frustrating search indeed, and I was just about ready to give up hope when I ran across 'A Prayer for America.' Thank God for this man's courage." Others simply read, "Kucinich for President."

For Kucinich, a former Cleveland mayor who led Democratic opposition to the US bombing of Yugoslavia and proposed establishing a Cabinet-level Department of Peace, speaking out against military adventuring is not new. But he says he's never experienced so immediate and enthusiastic a response. "We can't print out the messages as fast as we are receiving them," he says. "But I've read through a lot of them now, and they touch on the same themes. The Administration's actions are no longer appropriate, and it is time for Congress to start asking questions. The people understand something most of Congress does not. There is nothing unpatriotic about challenging this Administration's policies."

Kucinich was not the first Congress member to express concern about Bush's plans. Lee cast her cautionary vote in September. In October, responding to reports of civilian casualties in Afghanistan, Representative Jim McDermott criticized the speed with which the Administration had taken military action and the failure of the White House to adequately consult Congress. In December, Kucinich, McDermott and Lee joined five other House Democrats in signing a letter to Bush, written by Representative Tammy Baldwin, which noted, "We are concerned by those in your Administration and among our own ranks in the Congress who appear to be making the case for broad expansion of this military campaign beyond Afghanistan. Without presenting clear and compelling evidence that other nations were involved in the September 11 attacks, it is inappropriate to expand the conflict." Another letter, by Representative Peter DeFazio, called on the White House to comply with the War Powers Resolution before expanding the war. In February Senator Robert Byrd said that Congress should no longer hand the President a "blank check." Senate majority leader Tom Daschle suggested the war "will have failed" without the capture of Osama bin Laden--a statement rebuked by Republicans, who want no measure of success or failure applied to this war.

But Kucinich's speech was a clarion call. "For most people, Kucinich's speech represents the clearest Congressional criticism they have heard about the conduct of the war, and of the Administration's plans to expand it. That's enormously significant," said Midge Miller, who helped launch Senator Eugene McCarthy's antiwar challenge to President Lyndon Johnson in 1967. "Citizens look for Congressional opposition to organize around--they look for leaders to say something. When I read Kucinich's speech, I thought, This could be a turning point."

It has certainly been a turning point for Kucinich. Overwhelmed by invitations to speak, he says his top priority will be to work with Baldwin and others to encourage a broader Congressional debate over international priorities, Pentagon spending and the stifling of dissent. Expect battles in the House Democratic Caucus, where minority leader Dick Gephardt has been more cautious than Daschle about criticizing Bush. But Kucinich thinks more Democrats will begin to echo Senator Byrd's challenge to blank-check military spending in a time of tight budgets. Kucinich plans to encourage grassroots activists to tell members of Congress it is not merely necessary but politically safe to challenge "the Patriot Games, the Mind Games, the War Games of an unelected President and his unelected Vice President."

Kucinich, whose working-class district elected a conservative Republican before him, is confident Democrats from even the most competitive districts can safely join him in questioning the war. "The key," he says, "is to recognize that there is a great deal of unity in America around some basic values: peace and security, protection of the planet, a good quality of life for themselves and for others. When people express their patriotism, they are not saying--as some would suggest--that they no longer believe in these things. There's nothing unpatriotic about asserting human values and defending democratic principles. A lot of Americans are telling me this is the highest form of patriotism."

JOHN NICHOLS

For this article and links, see:
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020325&s=nichols

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3) Carol Rosin reports on kick-off event with Dennis Kucinich

The following Carol Rosin report was received from jean hudon, webposted at
http://www.cybernaute.com/earthconcert2000/Archives2002/MiscelSubjects132.
tm

Sat, 2 Mar 2002

On Saturday evening, Feb. 23rd the most extraordinary experience happened in Malibu, CA. About 250 (I expected 30-50) people showed up to meet Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) who introduced about the most exciting news any of us have heard in years, H.R. 3616, the Space Preservation Act of 2002 and the compatible world treaty that will replace the ABM Treaty, the Space Preservation Treaty. We now have a way to literally end the arms race, cap it, BEFORE space-based weapons can be deployed (which is possible any time after June 13th when Bush has announced he will unilaterally break the ABM Treaty between the US and USSR).

The house sat 80 comfortably, so it was standing room only and the room felt like it was filled with light. The congressman was clearly blown away, too. And what a message.

For the first time, we have a real chance to take a real step, to get U.S. national and WORLD law to ban space-based weapons, to prohibit the use of weapons against objects that are in space in orbit, and to literally transform, Aikido style, the war industry (and mindset) into a space
industry.

We can only do it this year, really, because as of June 13th, the U.S. administration can legally deploy weapons into space pointed down all our throats, even under the guise of it being "MERELY testing or MERELY research."

The language and purpose of the legislation and the treaty are the same. The treaty also includes language of the Outer Space Treaty of '67 and the great Chinese proposal for a treaty to ban space-based weapons. Most country leaders of the world have already expressed the desire to ban space-based weapons. And now is our chance...and it's a once in a lifetime chance.

Hearing Congressman Kucinich gave most of us chills. He's incredible. He's champion of all progressive issues as Chairman of the House Progressive Caucus, and is learning a lot about what IS in space and what CAN BE in space that will be exciting enough, fulfill enough contracts for industries, businesses and entrepreneurs in order to shift us from a war based economy into a space economy, and he travels to other countries...and knows that it's better to base security on enhancing communication, to the applications of clean and safe technology to solving urgent human and environmental problems, and he can see the value of banning space-based
weapons while we still can.

He's clearly a man of heart and integrity, and we were more blown away than he was at seeing this unexpected turn-out. He and his partner are vegan vegetarians. I mean, he is conscious and caring, and he walks his talk.

If I could, I would insist that everyone read, no, study the Space Preservation Act of 2002, and the Space Preservation Treaty. They are milestone pieces, works of art, and they will lead us into a new space paradigm, a new way of thinking, that will awaken and shift consciousness.

You can read the text on www.peaceinspace.com http://www.peaceinspace.com.

One of the most unique parts of the bill and the treaty is that the bill requires the U.S. President to negotiate a treaty, and the treaty establishes a world space peacekeeping agency that will monitor and enforce the ban. That kind of agency was missing from other treaties, so now when people ask "How would this be enforced" there is an answer.

Both the bill and treaty call for the immediate implementation of the ban on space-based weapons and for the stopping of research and development, testing, manufacturing and production of ALL space-based weapons (more than what the ABM Treaty called for, and it was only between the US and USSR), but allows for everyone to work cooperatively worldwide on space research and development, manufacturing, production, and deployment of civil, commercial and defense related projects that are NOT of a space-based weapons nature.

In other words, the bill and treaty provide for a win-win. People have been unable to stop the war machine for decades. The largest R&D program in history is now mandated to weaponize space. The nuclear industry, and other dangerous technologies continue to be developed. Standing on a launch pad with posters saying stop the rocket fumes didn't work. We can now shift the consciousness as we cap off the arms race, IF we go for it now. All we are doing as a FIRST STEP to actually shifting the consciousness is removing the mandate to weaponize space.

The people got really excited when Congressman Kucinich said NOW is the time to call your congress representatives in the House and tell them you want them to sign-on, to co-sponsor H.R. 3616. Now is the time to call Senators and tell them you want them to introduce and help to get co-sponsors of a Senate version of H.R. 3616. And now is the time to call all of your friends around the world, get a copy of the Space Preservation Treaty into the hands of all nation-state leaders, and tell them to introduce it and agree publically to sign-on to it.

This congressman is one of the people. His father was a truck driver for 35 years. His mother was a mom of seven children, of which he was the oldest. He was the youngest mayor in the country at 31, in Cleveland Ohio. He's won numerous awards including one from the International Order of the Eagles for being the outstanding politician. He's champion of conscious issues and is determined to get peace on this planet not only through this bill, but by creating a Department of Peace. He gives presentations that are so present, calm yet powerful, and he's the most amazing man I've met in my 28 years of working the Hill. He is devoted to getting this ban on space-based weapons in the world arena, which will pressure this administration and congress to do the same. And we have one chance in time to make this ban a reality.

Our Institute for Cooperation in Space, ICIS, will announce the details of a full-on action campaign next week, but meanwhile, people are activating already. I've received countless emails from people who attended that event who are really excited about this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to join a worldwide movement in solidarity. In fact, people there agreed to rise above their different perspectives and other vitally important issues to join in solidarity to get this Space Preservation Act of 2002, H.R. 3616, and the compatible Space Preservation Treaty into everyone's hands we know, into the media, supported and turned into law in 2002!

And once we've got this ban turned into law, we will also have the collective consciousness shifting, and our networks who have joined in solidarity to get the ban on space-based weapons will move on in the same way to focus on getting alternative energy and propulsion systems, and to feeding and healing everyone on this planet, and more.

First step, since there is a time sense of urgency, June 13th, people will do everything we know how to do to get the H.R. 3616, the Space Preservation Act of 2002, the Space Preservation Treaty, co-sponsored and signed and turned into law.

If anyone has any questions or needs for a copy of the legislation or the treaty, just let me know.

Times are looking up! We will have peace on earth through peace in space!!

Love and peace,

Carol Rosin

ICIS institute for cooperation in space
PO Box 25040 Ventura, CA 93001
Tel805-641-1999 Fax805-641-9669
http://www.peaceinspace.com
rosin@west.net

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For related article, Published on Friday, March 8, 2002 in the Boston Globe, see
"Missile Defense Shenanigans" by Derrick Jackson

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4) John Robbins – The Food Revolution


The following is from chapter one of John Robbin's newest book: The Food Revolution: How Your Diet Can Help Save Your Life and the World.
http://www.foodrevolution.org/food_revolution.htm


I was born into ice cream. Well, not literally, but just about. My father, Irv Robbins, founded, and for many years owned and ran what would become the world's largest ice cream company: Baskin-Robbins (31 Flavors). Along with my uncle, Burt Baskin, he built an empire, with thousands of stores worldwide and sales eventually measuring in the billions of dollars. We had an ice cream cone-shaped swimming pool, our cats were named after ice cream flavors, and I sometimes ate ice cream for breakfast. Not all that surprisingly, many people in the family struggled with weight problems, my uncle died of a heart attack in his early fifties, my father developed serious diabetes and high blood pressure, and I was sick more often than not.

None of that showed up on the balance sheets, however, and my father was grooming me to succeed him. I was his only son, and he expected me to follow in his footsteps. But things did not develop that way. I chose to leave behind the ice cream company and the money it represented, in order to take my own rocky road. I walked away from an opportunity to live a life of wealth to live a different kind of life, a life in which, I hoped, I might be able to be true to my values and learn to make a contribution to the well-being and happiness of others. It was a choice for integrity. Instead of the Great American Dream of financial success, I was pulled forward by a deeper dream.

Explaining that kind of thing to my father, a conservative Republican businessman who sometimes drove a Rolls Royce and never to my knowledge went a day without reading the Wall Street Journal, was not easy. At one point I told him, "Look, Dad, it's a different world than when you grew up. The environment is deteriorating rapidly under the impact of human activities. Every two seconds somewhere on Earth a child dies of starvation while elsewhere there are abundant food resources going to waste. Do you see that for me, under these circumstances, inventing a thirty-second flavor just would not be an adequate response for my life?"

My father was not pleased. He had worked hard his whole life and had achieved a level of financial success most people can only fantasize about, and he wanted to share his success and his company with his only son. From his point of view, I am sure, he got the only kid in the country who would turn down such a golden opportunity.

But turn it down I did, and, hungering for connection to the natural world and life's deeper rhythms, I moved with my wife, Deo, in1969, to a little island off the coast of British Columbia. There we proceeded to build a one-room log cabin, where we lived for the next ten years, growing most of our own food. We were financially poor, some years spending less than $1,000 total, but we were rich in love. Four years into our time on the island, our son Ocean was born into my hands. Deo and I are still lovingly together all these years later, by the way-a rarity in our generation.

During this time we began to live by the values that would culminate, in 1987, with the publication of my book Diet for a New America. I was learning to perceive the immense toll exacted by the standard North American diet-and the benefits that might be gained by a shift in a healthier direction. I was learning that the same food choices that do so much to prevent disease-that give you the most vitality, the strongest immune system, and the greatest life expectancy-were also the ones that took the least toll on the environment, conserved our precious natural resources, and were the most compassionate toward our fellow creatures.

In Diet for a New America I described what it was that pulled me away from the path my father had envisioned and prepared for me, and set me instead on the one I took:

"It's a dream of a success in which all beings share because it's founded on reverence for life. A dream of a society at peace with its conscience because it respects and lives in harmony with all life forms. A dream of a people living in accord with the natural laws of Creation, cherishing and caring for the environment, conserving nature instead of destroying it. A dream of a society that is truly healthy, practicing a wise and compassionate stewardship of a balanced ecosystem.

"This is not my dream alone. It is really the dream of all human beings who feel the plight of the Earth as their own, and sense our obligation to respect and protect the world in which we live. To some degree, all of us share in this dream. Yet few of us are satisfied that we are doing all that is needed to make it happen. Almost none of us are aware of just how powerfully our eating habits affect the possibility of this dream becoming a reality. We do not realize that one way or the other, how we eat has a tremendous impact."

In Diet for a New America, I attempted to show in full detail the nature of this impact on our health, and in addition on the vigor of our society, on the health of our world, and on the well-being of its creatures. I had no idea, while writing that book, that it would become a bestseller. I never suspected that I would receive 75,000 letters from people who read the book or who heard me speak about its message. And even if I had known how widely the book would be read, and how deeply it would impact the course of many people's lives, I don't think I could ever have imagined that it might help to impact choices on a larger scale. In the five years immediately following the book's publication, beef consumption in the United States dropped nearly 20 percent.

But in the last few years there's been a backlash. Fad diet books have sold millions of copies telling people they can lose weight and obtain optimum health while eating all the bacon and sausage they want. The U.S. meat industry has managed to divert attention away from the fact that the animals raised in modern factory farms are forced to endure conditions of almost unimaginable cruelty and deprivation. The USDA is proposing to irradiate increasing numbers of foods to combat the deadly food-borne diseases such as E. coli 0157:H7 that increasingly breed in today's factory farms and slaughterhouses.

Rather than clean up the conditions that produce these pathogens in the first place, the U.S. meat industry has strongly supported food disparagement laws that make it illegal to criticize perishable food products, and then has used such legislation to sue those who challenge their control over your wallet. They even sued Oprah Winfrey for saying that, based on what she'd learned about meat production in the United States, she was never going to eat another burger.

Meanwhile, the chemical industry has mounted an aggressive campaign to discredit organic food. And without the knowledge or consent of most Americans, two-thirds of the products on our supermarket shelves now contain genetically engineered ingredients.

The debate about animal products and genetically engineered foods, and about their impact on our health and our world, is not going to go away. It will be fought in courtrooms and the media, but it will also be fought in people's minds, hearts, and kitchens. In the process, those seeking a more humane and sustainable way of life-for themselves and for our society-will be criticized and attacked by the industries that profit from activities that are harming people and the planet.

As the discussion intensifies, so will the amount of information floating around. Some of it will be valid and rigorously accurate. And some of it will be the product of the public relations machinery of the industries that are selling unhealthy food and exploiting our world. I have written The Food Revolution because I believe that, given a chance, most people can tell the difference between the propaganda of industries whose entire intention is to promote and sell products, and data from researchers and scientists whose focus is the public interest.

I have written The Food Revolution to provide solid, reliable information for the struggle to achieve a world where the health of people and the Earth community is more important than the profit margins of any industry, where basic human needs take precedence over corporate greed. I have written this book so that you might have clear information on which to base your food choices. It will show you how to attain greater health and respond more deeply from your connection to all of life.

There is still strong in our society the belief that animals and the natural world have value only insofar as they can be converted into revenue. That nature is a commodity. And that the American dream is one of unlimited consumption.

There are many of us, on the other hand, who believe that animals and the natural world have value by virtue of being alive. That Nature is a community to which we belong and to which we owe our lives. And that the deeper American dream is one of unlimited compassion.

For the complete text of this chapter, see
http://www.foodrevolution.org/chapter_one.htm


For more information on this book and the work of John Robbins, visit his website:
http://www.foodrevolution.org

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