From the Washington Post

Climate Researchers Feeling Heat From White House
By Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, April 6, 2006; Page A27

Scientists doing climate research for the federal government say the Bush administration has made it hard for them to speak forthrightly to the public about global warming. The result, the researchers say, is a danger that Americans are not getting the full story on how the climate is changing.

Employees and contractors working for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, along with a U.S. Geological Survey scientist working at an NOAA lab, said in interviews that over the past year administration officials have chastised them for speaking on policy questions; removed references to global warming from their reports, news releases and conference Web sites; investigated news leaks; and sometimes urged them to stop speaking to the media altogether. Their accounts indicate that the ideological battle over climate-change research, which first came to light at NASA, is being fought in other federal science agencies as well.

read more at the Washington Post

bird flu 

‘Supermarkets have been
"irresponsible" and "outrageous" in their response to bird
flu, Scotland's environment minister and farming representatives said
yesterday.  

Waitrose was pilloried by Scottish egg farmers and
environment minister Ross Finnie after the English supermarket chain confirmed
it did not source any of its chickens and eggs from Scotland, where it plans to
open its first two stores in June.  

And there were claims that on Thursday - the
day after it first emerged Scotland could be suffering a possible outbreak - a
number of major supermarkets cancelled orders of chicken from a Scottish
supplier for this weekend. All the supermarkets contacted by The Scotsman
denied the claim.’ 

Supermarkets Under Fire
On Bird Flu Scare

 
and where’s Dick Cheney when
you need him?
 

mystery giant rabbit 

‘Worried British vegetable growers have
drafted in armed guards to protect their allotments from what they suspect is a
gigantic rabbit.  

Leeks and turnips have been ripped from the
ground, while whole rows of onions, parsnips and carrots lie decimated by the
creature's rampage through the prize vegetable plots of Felton, Northumberland.
 

The main clues to the culprit are some
oversized pawprints and sightings of a cross between a hare and a rabbit with
one ear larger than the other.  

A small group of allotment holders have now
clubbed together to hire two air-rifle marksmen with orders to shoot to kill.  

Jeff Smith, 63, spotted the black and brown
animal two months ago. He said: "This is no ordinary rabbit. We are
dealing with a monster. The first time I saw it I thought to myself: 'What the
hell is that?' I have seen its prints and they are huge. It is a brute of a
thing."  

Mr Smith, who has kept an allotment for 25
years, said: "We have two lads here with guns, but it is clever. They
never see it. There were big rabbits before pesticides were introduced, but not
like this."  

No Vegetable Is Safe
From The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit

‘Uh, oh! A new study reveals that “fears that the deadly strain of bird flu
would move through Africa and Europe in flocks of wild birds have so far proven
unfounded....” That means one less fear that the feds can use to frighten
grown-up American men and women as an excuse for more federal power-grabbing. 

Fear, of course, has been the
coin of the realm for oppressive and dictatorial governments throughout
history. Frighten the citizenry and they’ll practically beg you to take away
their freedom. That’s in fact how Hitler convinced the German parliament to
give him temporary
dictatorial powers after terrorists firebombed the German parliament
building. 

When Soviet communism, which had
been used for decades to justify ever-increasing budgets for the Pentagon, the
CIA, and the State Department, expired with the fall of the Berlin Wall, new
official fears had to be found. And fast! Federal power and federal budgets
depended on it. There were, for example, the drug lords, who were coming to get
us and put us on drugs. My favourite though was – “an unsafe world,” which was
enough to scare anyone to death.’ 

Fear Is the Coin
Of The Realm 

‘Last year, Ray Moynihan and Alan
Cassels called attention to the epidemic of disease marketing in their book "Selling Sickness."
Last month, health professionals, academics, journalists and consumers gathered
in Newcastle, Australia, for the Inaugural Conference on Disease Mongering. A set of papers
from that meeting was published free by the online journal PLoS Medicine. Also
last month, the Prescription Access Litigation Project (PALP) in Boston
announced its "2006 Bitter Pill
Awards," recognizing drug companies that engaged in the year's worst
"overzealous and questionable marketing practices." 

These and other recent activities
make it all too clear that the profitable practices exposed in Lynn Payer's
1992 book "Disease Mongers: How Doctors, Drug Companies, and Insurers Are
Making You Feel Sick" have been refined and amplified in recent years,
with the apparent goal of medicating an entire population.’ 

How the Drug Companies Want
Us to Be Sick

From Al Jazeera

California sues Coke
Wednesday 17 May 2006, 8:45 Makka Time, 5:45 GMT

The US state of California and the city of Los Angeles have filed a lawsuit against Coca-Cola, saying that Coke drinks made in Mexico are contaminated with lead.

A lawsuit filed on Tuesday claims that high levels of lead have been found in paint used to decorate the outside of glass Coca-Cola bottles and also in the drink itself.

"Millions of bottles of this product have been handled and consumed by Californians over the past four years without any warning of the danger they pose," the court papers said.

The suit, filed by Bill Lockyer, the California attorney general, and Rocky Delgadillo, LA's city attorney, alleges that company officials knew consumers were being exposed to unsafe levels of lead.

Drink 'is safe'

However, Coca-Cola said in a statement that it would "vigorously defend itself" against the "outlandish allegations".

............

Diluted in drinks, petrol fumes, old and new paints or in bullets — lead is toxic and can be lethal....