Amerikai Magyar Hírlap, 2010 (22. évfolyam, 1-50. szám)

2010-10-15 / 39. szám

Coalition’s Relief Fund to Help Victims of “Red Sludge” Disaster in Hungary

Gov. George Pataki to Spearhead Fundraising Efforts

Washington, DC - Graphic photographs in the international media have stunned and saddened concerned citizens around the world: on October 4, the wall of a reservoir at an alumina plant in northwest Hungary collapsed, unleashing a flood of toxic red sludge that killed 6 people until now and injured more than 120, according to the Hungarian government’s spokesman. Several towns were virtually destroyed, displacing hundreds of residents, who will probably never be able to return home. While its full longterm impact is not yet clear, the event represents a human and environmental disaster affecting not only the immediate region, but the larger ecosystem as well.

The Executive Committee of the Board of Directors of the Hungarian American Coalition (Coalition) has approved the establishment of a “Red Sludge Disaster Relief Fund” to help the victims. Donations to the fund will be used to help the most needy as determined by Hungarian authorities.

This Disaster Relief Fund is established in response to Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who has asked Hungarian Americans to contribute to the relief effort, and who called upon Governor George Pataki to coordinate fundraising efforts in the United States.

Gov. Pataki will spearhead fundraising efforts to benefit the Coalition’s Disaster Relief Fund. The Coalition urges all of their members and other organizations to join this effort and to donate generously, either to the fund established by the Coalition or through the charity of their choice.

Donations to the Coalition’s fund are tax deductible and can be made by sending a check made out to: Hungarian American Coalition - Disaster Relief Fund, to the following address:

Hungarian American Coalition

Red Sludge Disaster Relief Fund

1120 Connecticut Ave. NW, Suite 280. Washington, DC 20036

Donors who would like to use credit cards can call our office at (202) 296-9505 or (202) 828-8300 or send us a fax at (202) 775-5175 to safely process their donation.

For more information on relief efforts, please visit our home page at www.hacusa.org

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Former Congressman Ernie Könnyű Recomends: On Propositions - November 2010 Statewide Ballot

Prop 19: California Goes Illegal On Marijuana VOTE NO. The pot loving lobby came up with this one knowing that Obama and his A.G. are not going to enforce the Federal anti-marijuana law at the local or state level. Prop. 19 would legalize at the state level people cultivating and smoking marijuana. It even provides that “no person shall be discriminated against or denied any right or privilege” for pot use, inviting a lawsuit every time an employer tries to require a drug test, for example. Of course, there is no Prop. 19 test provided to prosecute drunken pot driving that kills and maims as there is the 0.8% level for alcohol. Prop. 19 is badly written and it is dangerous for you and me.

Prop 20: Independent Drawing of Congressional District Lines. VOTE YES. This is a good government measure that stops Sacramento politicians from drawing friendly Congressional district lines for their buddies in Washington so you can’t vote them out of office. Prop. 20 finishes the work we began in 2008 to get redistricting decisions away from self-interested state legislators and into the hands of a bi-partisan commission. The original reform omitted Congressional districts.

Prop. 20 simply adds them.

Prop 21: Car Tax increase Highway Robbery. VOTE NO. Right now, state park users pay a nominal fee that helps pay for upkeep, assuring that those of us who use our state parks help pay for them. This measure ends the day-user fee and shifts the cost to the rest of us by imposing an $18 per car tax increase whether we use the parks or not. Stealing money from highway travelers used to be called “highway robbery.” Now it’s called “Proposition 21.”

Prop 22: Hands Off Our Money. VOTE YES. This takes a giant leap toward restoring local government independence and protecting our transportation taxes by prohibiting state raids on local and transportation funds. Local governments are hardly paragons of virtue, but local tax revenues should remain local.

Prop 23: Temporary Job

Loss Prevention From Anti- Global Warming Law. VOTE YES. In 2006, AB 32 passed, imposing draconian future restrictions...and very consumer expensive controls.. .on carbon dioxide emissions (yes, that’s the stuff you exhale). The

Enviros promised to save the planet...something California simply can not come close to doing by itself...from man-made “global warming”. (I know! $3.50 per gallon gas prices are not high enough for the Enviro extremists in Sac town.) Prop 23 keeps these environmental goals but suspends AB 32 from being implemented... read: temporarily stops higher California energy prices and resulting jobs losses...until unemployment stabilizes at or below its pre-AB 32 level.

Prop 24: California Business Taxes Aren’t High Enough. VOTE NO. In last year’s Budget “deal” of big time tax increases, business was given some California jobs creating tax breaks to gain their support. Prop. 24, pushed by the government employee unions, reverses much of those breaks by imposing an additional $1.7 billion tax on businesses. The problem, of course, is that businesses don’t pay business taxes - they pass it on to their customers.. .and that’s us...or, if they can’t, close their doors in California.

Prop 25: Let’s Stop The Annual State Budget Disasters. VOTE YES. In the words of former Assembly Republican Leader Robert Naylor and others, the state budget system has been and is broken. This changes the 2/3 vote requirement for the

Október 15,2010

ÍD

Warden Report:

Toxic Sludge Spill

The U.S. Embassy is closely monitoring the situation of the toxic spill in Hungary through the media and contacts within the Hungarian Government.

According to the information available at this time, most of the damage is concentrated in the villages of Devecser, Kolontár, Somlóvásárhely, Tüskevár, Apácatorna, and Kisberzseny. These towns are all located in Veszprém country, about two hours southwest of Budapest. The Government of Hungary is restricting access to that area.

There is no evidence at this time that other areas of Hungary are affected by the spill. All major highways, airports, and train stations are open and operating normally.

Although there are press reports of the sludge reaching the Danube upriver from Budapest, according to the Hungarian Academy of Sciences there is no indication at this time that the water in the river has an abnormal level of toxicity. Tests of wells and underground reservoirs show no contamination of drinking water supplies. The Government of Hungary is monitoring both the river and drinking water supplies on a constant basis. The situation can be monitored in English on a special website created by the Hungarian Ministry of the Interior: http://vorosiszap.bm.hu/index.en.html.

U.S. citizens are encouraged to monitor the media for further information. If you wish to help or make a donation to help the victims of this tragedy, please contact the Hungarian Red Cross at +36- 1-374-1300.

Chinese Dissident Liu Wins Nobel Peace Prize

OSLO, Norway (AP) - Imprisoned Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo won the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for using nonviolence to demand fundamental human rights in his homeland. The award ignited a furious response from China, which accused the Norwegian Nobel Committee of violating its own principles by honoring “a criminal.”

Chinese state media immediately blacked out the news and Chinese government censors blocked Nobel Prize reports from Internet websites. China declared the decision would harm its relations with Norway — and the Nordic country responded that was a petty thing for a world power to do.

This year’s peace prize followed a long tradition of honoring dissidents around the world and was the first Nobel for China’s dissident community since it resurfaced after the Communists launched economic but not political reforms three decades ago.

Liu, 54, was sentenced last year to 11 years in prison for subversion. The Nobel committee said he was the first to be honored while still in prison, although other Nobel winners have been under house arrest or imprisoned before the prize.

Other dissidents to win the peace prize include German pacifist Carl von Ossietzky in 1935, Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov in 1975, Polish Solidarity leader Lech Walesa in 1983 and Myanmar democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi in 1991.

The Nobel committee praised Liu’s pacifist approach, ignoring threats by Chinese diplomats even before the announcement that such a decision would result in strained ties with Norway. Liu has been an ardent advocate for peaceful, gradual political change rather than confrontation with the government, unlike others in China’s highly fractured and persecuted dissident community.

The Nobel committee cited Liu’s participation in the Tiananmen Square protests in Beijing in 1989 and the Charter 08 document he recently co-authored, which called for greater freedom in China and an end to the Communist Party’s political dominance.

Chinese authorities would not allow access to Liu on Friday.

state budget to a simple majority. Experience has shown that the current 2/3 vote requirement for the budget does not restrain spending...just look at the $20+ billion current deficit.. .and it utterly blurs accountability. Such a reform, however, must repair the 2/3 vote requirement language for all tax increases.. .although at least one judge seemed to validate the Prop. 25 2/3-rd tax increase requirement.

Prop 26: Passing User Fees by a Majority. VOTE NO. Under the Sinclair Paint decision, virtually any fee charged by the government to a direct service user, such as a fee to use a park, may be increased by majority vote of the law makers as long as it is truly a fee for service rendered the user. Prop. 26 rescinds the Sinclair Paint court decision and requires a 2/3-rds vote for fee increase passage, the same as a tax increase. This change would badly handicap local government

for charging legitimate user fees, especially for parks and recreation services.

Prop 27: Oh My Gosh. VOTE NO. Want to go back to the dark days when Sacramento politicians drew their own Senate and Assembly district lines, literally choosing their own voters? I was in the Legislature to see the 1981 butchering of legislative and congressional lines that Governor Jerry Brown signed into law. It was so ugly that a judge had to step in and throw out some of the districts including the one won by our own Congressman Ed Zschau. Our current good government independent redistricting commission should stay.

P.S. Let me thank my former California Assembly mate, now Congressman Tom McClintock, for his recommendations on these propositions. His language was most useful in preparing my thoughts for you.

AMERICAN

Hungarian Journat

Source: MTI - Sándor H. Szabó

AMERIKAI

Ifagyar Hírlap