Blogger's Note

Blogger has launched a new interface and it is just awful. The formatting problems have been going on for weeks now and it has become quite tiresome. Consequently, we moved to saveourcola.wordpress.com. Future posts can be found there.

Libya: Connect the Dots-You Get a Giant Dollar Sign

Terrific piece by Russ Baker. http://whowhatwhy.com/2011/06/06/libya-connect-the-dots-you-get-a-giant-dollar-sign/

Photo O' The Day, April 29, 2012

From Cindy's newsletter: FYI: We had scheduled and confirmed an interview with Glenn Greenwald a couple of months back and he just never "showed up" for it and after that would never respond to my producer about what happened. I still think he is a brilliant analyst of the Empire and his slight of the Soapbox won't change that fact, but if anyone knows how to reach him, maybe we can find out what happened?) Cindy likes Castro and Greenwald more than I do, jftr.

Egypt Counterrevolution Update: The elBaradei Charade Deepens.

[Blogger's note: Blogspot has gone to a new interface and it's full of glitches. One problem is that the formatting doesn't work (everything compressed into one paragraph) unless there is a italicized quote. This is inserted for that purpose.]

I have been faithfully reading Zeinobia's Egyptian Chronicles blog since the revolution began, and I have a lot of respect for her reports and her indefatigability, but where elBaradei is concerned she has swallowed the goldfish whole. He is Wall Street's man in Cairo, and this is becoming more apparent every day. He's changed the name of his party from the Revolution Party to the Constitution Party, a diaphanous attempt to de-radicalize Egyptian political discourse. As Zeinobia points out he's bringing in SCAF supporters, and he's talking about merging with other non-revolutionary parties. He's passing himself off as a "liberal", which is bad enough, but his political career reveals him to be neither left nor right but a servant of international capital. A year or so ago I predicted that the Egyptian Revolution would be etiolated [Counterrevolution 101] and that elBaradei would likely be the first president of the bourgeois republic. It is hardly a sure thing as the imperialists have several horses in this race, but at this point it looks like he is their annointed one. http://egyptianchronicles.blogspot.com/2012/04/cparty-wish-for-it-all-success-but.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+EgyptianChronicles+%28Egyptian+chronicles%29

Quebec Students Endure Despite Police State Repression

http://networkedblogs.com/wXu5O

A farewell to U.S. factories

Although the absolute number of jobs in American manufacturing was rather constant at about 17 million from 1969 to 2002, manufacturing’s share of jobs continued to decline from about 28% in 1962 to only 9% in 2011.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/farewell-u-factories-021022422.html

India contributes half of world’s measles deaths

GDP soaring but India's children still dying from easily prevented diseases. This is called capitalism. http://bikyamasr.com/67083/india-contributes-half-of-worlds-measles-deaths/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+BikyaMasrNews+%28Bikya+Masr+|+Independent+news+for+the+world%29

The Children of Fallujah - Sayef's Story

April 25, 2012 "The Independent" - - For little Sayef, there will be no Arab Spring. He lies, just 14 months old, on a small red blanket cushioned by a cheap mattress on the floor, occasionally crying, his head twice the size it should be, blind and paralysed. Sayeffedin Abdulaziz Mohamed – his full name – has a kind face in his outsized head and they say he smiles when other children visit and when Iraqi families and neighbours come into the room. But he will never know the history of the world around him, never enjoy the freedoms of a new Middle East. He can move only his hands and take only bottled milk because he cannot swallow. He is already almost too heavy for his father to carry. He lives in a prison whose doors will remain forever closed.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article31178.htm

Private Prison Corporations Are Modern Day Slave Traders

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article31177.htm

"The terrible, cold, cruel part is Wall Street. Rivers of gold flow there from all over the earth, and death comes with it. There, as nowhere else, you feel a total absence of the spirit: herds of men who cannot count past three, herds more who cannot get past six, scorn for pure science and demoniacal respect for the present. And the terrible thing is that the crowd that fills the street believes that the world will always be the same and that it is their duty to keep that huge machine running, day and night, forever."

Federico Garcia Lorca - Spanish Poet and Playwright, killed by fascists early on in the Spanish Revolution.

Happy Sinai Liberation Day 2012

http://egyptianchronicles.blogspot.com/2012/04/happy-sinai-liberation-day-2012.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+EgyptianChronicles+%28Egyptian+chronicles%29

Why Isn’t Closing 40 Philadelphia Public Schools National News? Where Is the Black Political Class?

Great piece. http://thetrialbyfire.org/2012/04/25/why-isnt-closing-40-philadelphia-public-schools-national-news-where-is-the-black-political-class/

USA: Occupy’s “precarious” general strike

http://www.europe-solidaire.org/spip.php?article24875

Protest Time in Tunisia Again

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=107504

May Day General Strike Posters

Can be found here, some good, some not. The comments are worth reading. I responded but judging by the tenor of the other comments I'm not sure mine will see the light of day, so I reproduce it here.

My, my, $12 or 13/hr, such largesse Michael. You might be better by measure than most capitalists, but you still live off the labor of others, and that’s exploitation pure and simple. They have a job because you say so. When all the workers own your business and have equal power and rights therein, then and only then will OS’ work be done. That our livelihoods depend on the relative philanthropy of those who expropriate our labor is entirely unacceptable, and I find your self-pitying comments Michael to be condescension of the worst sort.

Paris Commune Addresses The Soldiers Of Versailles' Army

In short it appeals to them to defect. It says that "like us you are proletarians" and the monarchists and shouldn't be allowed "the right to drink our blood as they drink our sweat." It finishes by exhorting "come to us, brothers, we welcome you with open arms."

Bangladesh labor leader murdered two weeks after international rights victory

Weeks after winning a major commitment from American clothing giant Phillips-Van Heusen to improve labor conditions in the garment factories of Bangladesh, one of the leaders of the workers’ movement has been found murdered, his body showing evidence of brutal torture. Aminul Islam, a head of the Bangladesh Centre for Worker Solidarity (BCWS) and the Bangladesh Garment and Industrial Workers Federation, disappeared from the country’s main textile center of Ashulia on Wednesday after receiving a call from a worker requesting assistance. « His legs had severe torture marks including a hole made by a sharp object. All his toes were broken, » the local police chief told AFP.

http://www.europe-solidaire.org/spip.php?article24839

India tests long-range missile capable of striking China’s cities

WW3 on the way. http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/apr2012/indi-a24.shtml

Photo O' The Day, Egypt revolution graffiti

http://bikyamasr.com/66903/photo-of-the-day-egypt-revolution-graffiti/

Quebec student strike contines

Photo, text and quick video. http://blogs.ubc.ca/workplace/2012/04/quebec-student-strike-contines/

Jailed for $280: The return of debtors’ prisons

Although the U.S. abolished debtors’ prisons in the 1830s, more than a third of U.S. states allow the police to haul people in who don’t pay all manner of debts, from bills for health care services to credit card and auto loans. In parts of Illinois, debt collectors commonly use publicly funded courts, sheriff’s deputies, and country jails to pressure people who owe even small amounts to pay up, according to the AP. Under the law, debtors aren’t arrested for nonpayment, but rather for failing to respond to court hearings, pay legal fines, or otherwise showing “contempt of court” in connection with a creditor lawsuit. That loophole has lawmakers in the Illinois House of Representatives concerned enough to pass a bill in March that would make it illegal to send residents of the state to jail if they can’t pay a debt. The measure awaits action in the senate. “Creditors have been manipulating the court system to extract money from the unemployed, veterans, even seniors who rely solely on their benefits to get by each month,” Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan said last month in a statement voicing support for the legislation. “Too many people have been thrown in jail simply because they’re too poor to pay their debts. We cannot allow these illegal abuses to continue.”

In the old days debtor prison inmates were given the option of indentured servitude--slavery--for a term shorter than their sentence. We are not likely to see the return of this outrage as nowadays inmates do forced labor so there is no incentive for capital to offer a reduced period of incarceration. http://thetrialbyfire.org/2012/04/23/jailed-for-280-the-return-of-debtors-prisons/

Egypt ElBaradei wants 5 million members in his new party

ElBaradei isn't the only Trojan Horse in the race, he's just one of them.

His new party is called "The Revolution". It could better be called The Counterrevolution.

The idea that EB is a revolutionary is just a joke. He was international capital's top nuclear cop. His organization, the IAEA, was an extension of the intelligence apparati of Western imperialism. His party takes a "get tough" line with Israel, but one of the IAEA's task was to protect Israel's nuclear monopoly in the Mideast.

Unfortunately, all the major parties are under the control of the military junta, even the one's whose candidates were recently decertified.

Yes, including the Brotherhood, who have been the loyal opposition posing as disloyal for decades. The ruling class always seeks to dominate both ends of the political spectrum, thus compressing nascent resistance within an organization under their secret control. In the US, capital destroyed both the anarchist and Marxist movements but kept the Communist Party alive as a snare. Freedom of Information requests revealed that a majority of the CPUSA leadership and a goodly percentage of its membership were working for the FBI. The old joke back in the day was that you could always tell who worked for the Bureau because they always paid their dues on time.

http://bikyamasr.com/66826/elbaradei-wants-5-million-members-his-new-party/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+BikyaMasrNews+%28Bikya+Masr+|+Independent+news+for+the+world%29

Mitt Romney, American Parasite

This is called capitalism.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article31153.htm

Election 2012, Who's Your Daddy?

Financial ‘Reform’ Failure: Chase, Bank Of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs Now 30% Bigger; Control Assests Equal To 56% Of U.S. Economy

The collapse of '08 was a scam. It was a controlled demolition designed to move wealth up the food chain to four or so richest families--and it succeeded.

What you will read here is no accident.

http://theoldspeakjournal.wordpress.com/2012/04/19/financial-reform-failure-chase-bank-of-america-citigroup-wells-fargo-goldman-sachs-now-30-bigger-control-assests-equal-to-56-of-u-s-economy/

Discovered here

Didacticide Update, The Tennessee Front

Tennessee has now passed a law permitting teachers to present students with alternatives to well-known scientific principles.

In case there is any doubt as to what the real function of the schools are--to create a docile, unreflective, apathetic populace who will not interfere in the machinations of capital--this case should clear it up. Normally one might be pleased the schools are encouraging students to tackle controversial subjects, to think critically about accepted norms and conventional wisdom, but look at what they list as topics for consideration:

...the only examples the legislation gives of “controversial” theories are “biological evolution, the chemical origins of life, global warming, and human cloning.”

Whose agenda is this?

http://whowhatwhy.com/2012/04/16/tennessee-decides-it-is-not-backward-enough/

Quote O' The Day, April 22, 2012

There were two “Reigns of Terror,” if we would but remember it and consider it; the one wrought murder in hot passion, the other in heartless cold blood; the one lasted mere months, the other had lasted a thousand years; the one inflicted death upon ten thousand persons, the other upon a hundred millions; but our shudders are all for the “horrors” of the minor Terror, the momentary Terror, so to speak; whereas, what is the horror of swift death by the axe, compared with lifelong death from hunger, cold, insult, cruelty, and heart-break? What is swift death by lightning compared with death by slow fire at the stake? A city cemetery could contain the coffins filled by that brief Terror which we have all been so diligently taught to shiver at and mourn over; but all France could hardly contain the coffins filled by that older and real Terror — that unspeakably bitter and awful Terror which none of us has been taught to see in its vastness or pity as it deserves.

Mark Twain on the French Revolution, from A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court

New York City Democrats propose phony “living wage” bill

I yield the floor to Lilly Tomlin for one of my favorite quotes:

No matter how cynical I get I can never keep up.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/apr2012/quin-a21.shtml

Egypt Tantawi meets with US CENTCOM delegation in Cairo

http://bikyamasr.com/66704/egypt-tantawi-meets-with-us-centcom-delegation-in-cairo/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+BikyaMasrNews+%28Bikya+Masr+|+Independent+news+for+the+world%29

Audio: Michigan Unions Challenge Payroll Dues Deduction Ban In Federal Court,

http://www.laborradio.org/

Caveat Emptor: Mass rally in Paris for radical left presidential candidate

Here we go again. If you think you can vote your way to justice then think again. The largest and strongest partner in the Front is the France's communist party. Their history is nothing short of squalid. In the 30s, 60s, and 90s they were responsible for saving bourgeois governments from worker rebellions. It, like so many communist parties around the world, has been clandestinely taken over by capital and serves its interests.

Anger is running higher than usual these days and the ruling class has brought forth this Trojan Horse to run the electoral ruse yet again. Melenchon may very well be legitimate (well it's possible), but if his Front actually threatens to win he will be co-opted or marginalized one way or another.

I yield the floor to Emma Goldman:

If voting changed anything they would make it illegal.

For real progress to be made, government must be dismantled and democracy take its place.

http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=28234
http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=28234

Rhode Island Pension Cuts Set Chilling Precedents

http://labornotes.org/2012/04/rhode-island-pension-cuts-set-chilling-precedents

Government Misinformation Campaign Targets Reporter

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article31133.htm

Egyptian Electoral commission upholds ban on 10 presidential candidates

Military dictators appoint the electoral commission, and the electoral commission decides who can run.

http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/36/122/39510/Presidential-elections-/Presidential-elections-news/Electoral-commission-upholds-ban-on--presidential-.aspx

World Bank Supports Harmful Water Corporations, Report Finds

http://ipsnews.net/newsTVE.asp?idnews=107441

Wikiganda Alert: The Psy-op Moves To The Small Screen.

As for me, I'm waiting for the musical.

For those of you who are still deluded to think the US wouldn't shoot this guy if he was what he claims to be, Agent Assange's new TV show should do the trick. Here we see the empire's factotum doing his duty.

We should recall that our fair-haired boy made a deal with Zion not to release any "documents" which would be detrimental for Israel. This alone should suffice to reveal who he is and what he's doing. Agent Assange has not been at all averse to publishing documents that were compromising to the governments of Israel's neighbors (Egypt, Tunisia, Syria et al), yet he refrains from anything which would hinder the racist, fascist, genocidal regime in Tel Aviv in its conquest of Palestine. One can only wonder as to motive but one thing is clear: It is not justice that concerns him.

Roots Of Occupy: The Battle In Seattle, 1999

http://www.countercurrents.org/mickeyz180412.htm

Quote O' The Day, 18 April, 2012

Let each man say what he deems truth, and let truth itself be commended unto God!

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing

Single Mother Falsely Accused of Endangering Her Children at Occupy Oakland

http://occupyca.wordpress.com/2012/04/17/single-mother-falsely-accused-of-endangering-her-children-at-occupy-oakland/

Gulf of Mexico seafood deformities alarm scientists

http://thetrialbyfire.org/2012/04/18/gulf-seafood-deformities-alarm-scientists/

Video: Marx on the Paris Commune: That is Socialism

Class Warfare On Two Fronts: From Afghanistan To Middle America, The Untold Story Of Sgt. Bales

Good piece.

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/mark-ames/42642/class-warfare-on-two-fronts-from-afghanistan-to-middle-america-the-untold-story-of-sgt-bales

Quote O' The Day, 17 April, 2012

So long as we have industrial feudalism, politics will be the shadow cast by business over society.

John Dewey on Capitalism

Video Of Photos Of The Paris Commune Of 1871

Mario Vaccarino, Union Boss Thought Killed by Mafia, Actually Slain by an Ex-Cop

http://pugetsoundanarchists.org/node/1565

Poster O' The Day, 16 April, 2012: May Day General Strike

Discovered here.

Why the FCC Fined Google Just 68 Seconds in Profits

http://www.propublica.org/article/why-the-fcc-fined-google-just-68-seconds-in-profits

Child Laborer Finally Freed From Captivity After Losing Arm in Cotton Ginning Accident

http://laborrightsblog.typepad.com/international_labor_right/2012/04/child-laborer-finally-freed-from-captivity-after-losing-arm-in-cotton-ginning-accident.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+typepad%2FILRF%2Finternational_labor_right+%28Labor+Is+Not+A+Commodity+Blog%29

Wells Fargo Now A Major Shareholder In For-Profit Prisons

Let me see now they are going to make money from the prison itself, and the inmate's forced labor--a solid business model. Slavery, the new growth industry.

Soon we are going to have incarceration-backed securities(IBS)--buy a share in the slave's...er...inmate's productivity. And of course we'll need CDO's against the risk of premature parole or a downturn in street crime. But the market will provide solutions...

Capitalism is obscene.



http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/wells-fargo-now-major-shareholder-pro

Sudan army advancing on oil fields; SPLA will fight to the death

Africa has largely been spared the last two World Wars, it won't be so lucky in the next. China backs the government in Khartoum and the West the new capital of Juba in the south. The secession agreement didn't resolve the territorial disputes because Western interests didn't want it to.

http://bikyamasr.com/66002/sudan-army-advancing-on-oil-fields-spla-will-fight-to-the-death/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+BikyaMasrNews+%28Bikya+Masr+|+Independent+news+for+the+world%29

Joke O' The Day, April 14, 2012

Somewhere in the US, a demonstration takes place. The police arrive and beat the protesters mercilessly.

“Don’t hit me,” someone shouts, “I am an anti-communist!”

“I couldn’t give a damn what kind of a communist you are!” a policeman answers as he raises his baton.

Uri Avnery, discovered here

Newsflash: Dick Cheney Says Bush Administration Never Claimed Osama Bin Laden Was Involved In 9/11

I've only watched the first few minutes of this film so I'm not endorsing it, but please enjoy the Dickster saying that there's no evidence OBL was behind the attack.

Some may argue that Cheney says OBL was not directly involved. The official theory was that he was the leader of the organization which planned, funded, and executed the massacre. More importantly, it was claimed that it went ahead on his say so. Certainly the man who ordered the outrage can be said to be directly involved.

Article O' The Day, 14 April, 2012: You Can't “Grow The Movement” By Dissing The Kids: On Chris Hedges And Occupy

Terrific piece! Acosta's elucidation is the best I've read on the topic of the troubled, rapidly deteriorating Mr Hedges.

http://www.countercurrents.org/acosta140412.htm



You can link through to another of her pieces which is equally good. Here's the video she links to:



And Here's a response by a questioner at the event:




I wrote about Hedges' screed at the time in this space, as did other anarchists elsewhere on the web.

A few observations about Hedges and his views: My main objections are discussed in the entry linked above, beyond those he is remarkably intolerant of those whom he condemns for intolerance. He's also not above employing the "linguistic violence"--calling BBers "stupid"--he finds so distasteful in others.

Of greater importance, the real issue is whether violence, using the term in the capacious, Hedgesian sense, is acceptable/beneficial/tolerable etc.

UK BBC And Australian ABC Censor Dr Niels Harrit And Key Evidence That US Did 9-11

Professor Niels Harrit is a distinguished Danish chemist from the Department of Chemistry, University of Copenhagen, who with his international colleagues found compelling chemical physics-based evidence for unexploded nano-thermite high explosive in all samples of the World Trade Center (WTC) dust examined, this in turn providing compelling evidence for explosive demolition of the 3 WTC buildings...However a BBC Search for “niels harrit” yields zero (0) results and an ABC Search for the phrase “neils harrit” only yields 1 relevant result as compared to a Google Search result of 244,000 URLs. This solitary ABC article does not itself refer to Niels Harrit but this distinguished Danish scientist is mentioned in its comment thread by one of numerous listeners...

Good, well-researched article.

http://www.countercurrents.org/polya140412.htm

Zioganda Alert: Ben Stein Lying For Israel Update

A Rare Admission From Israel

It's when I challenged him on the biggest talking point of all, Iran's supposed determination to "wipe Israel off the face of the map," that Meridor seemed to stumble outside the lines of the agreed narrative.

Meridor: [Iran's leaders] all come basically ideologically, religiously with the statement that Israel is an unnatural creature, it will not survive. They didn't say 'we'll wipe it out', you are right, but [that] it will not survive, it is a cancerous tumor, it should be removed;

Nabili: Well, I am glad you acknowledged they didn't say they will wipe it out, because certainly Israeli politicians…


Meridor: … they say it will be removed, needs to be removed …

Certainly there can be no doubt that Zionism (i.e. Israel) has been a cancer in Mideast and world politics, but that's precisely why it has the backing of international capital. It is, as promised by Herzl and other early Zionists, a pro-Western regional superpower in the midst of all that oil.

Good article, worth a read.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article31072.htm

Quote O' The Day, 14 April, 2012

"Truth has to be repeated constantly, because Error also is being preached all the time, and not just by a few, but by the multitude. In the Press and Encyclopaedias, in Schools and Universities, everywhere Error holds sway, feeling happy and comfortable in the knowledge of having Majority on its side."

Goethe

Audio: More Than 100,000 Postal Workers Rally To Save America’s Postal Service

http://www.laborradio.org/

THE DISGUSTING ATTACKS ON GUNTER GRASS, BY TARIQ ALI

http://www.gilad.co.uk/writings/tariq-ali-the-disgusting-attacks-on-gunter-grass-by-tariq-al.html

In Brazil, GM Cost-Cutting Kills

The union’s secretary general, Luiz Carlos Prates, spoke during the work stoppage meeting: “This is an assembly of grief and struggle. Our brother Teodoro would not be dead if GM invested more in safety, listened to the workers’ safety committees, and stopped laying off and pressuring us so much. What happened here is the result of GM’s restructuring. The time has come to end this.”

http://labornotes.org/blogs/2012/04/brazil-gm-cost-cutting-kills

Didacticide Update, The British Colombia Front

http://labornotes.org/2012/04/forced-end-strike-british-columbia-teachers-plan-comeback

Banks look to cherry-pick Fed portfolio

The New York Fed is considering selling the Maiden Lane III portfolio after it auctioned the remaining assets in Maiden Lane II, another portfolio related to AIG’s bailout, this year, logging a $2.8bn profit. Maiden Lane II housed bonds backed by subprime US home loans, securities that have been in demand in recent months for their relatively high yields.

What's that pray tell? Come again please. AIG bailed out because it was holding this bad paper and now said paper is in demand due to high yields?

How they must laugh at us working class folk! And we deserve it.

http://nicosiamoneynews.com/2012/04/13/banks-look-to-cherry-pick-fed-portfolio/

Matt Stoller: Some Observations on the Second Lien Problem

Housing market hostages! A good explication of one aspect of the housing bubble scam. Once again the big banks end up somehow profiting from holding "bad" mortgages.

The author expresses puzzlement over the regulators unwillingness to do the right and obvious thing. I am puzzled that anyone could be puzzled at this point--the bubble scam is as diaphanous as it could be. Capital crashes the economy periodically when working people have amassed enough wealth as to be worth stealing.

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/04/some-observations-on-the-second-lien-problem.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29

Anarchist scholar denied entry to Canada

If you are surprised by this then you still don't get it.

http://blogs.ubc.ca/ices/2012/04/12/anarchist-scholar-to-speak-at-rfaera-denied-entry-to-canada/

RIP Ahmed Ben Bella

[Blogger's note April 13: I've been challenged on my charge that Bella was never really a leftist. Some good points were raised. The issue is whether in his youth his views differed from those expressed in the last 30 or so years of his life. If not then certainly he is no leftist. If so then we will need parameters for classifying somebody thus. Simply resisting colonialism does not make one a leftist (think ANC and a million others), worthy though that effort is. An Islamic republic may constitute a kind of primitive communism and might thus qualify as leftist, but by anarchist standards, my standard, this is a bit of a stretch, and then we would have to consider if any theocratic state could be truly leftist.

Zeinobia justifies calling Bella a leftist due to his support for Nasser, but he too is no leftist. The Egyptian leader while admirable in his foreign policy, was in bed with the domestic bourgeoisie right from the start.

By my reckoning, Bella is surely no leftist, however I haven't researched him well enough to be confidant in my assessment, so, for the moment, consider this an apology and a retraction.]


Not sure Bella was ever a real "leftist" as Zeinobia asserts, but he led a successful campaign against imperialism. Unfortunately the Algerian Revolution was betrayed before it started.

In any case, he is to be celebrated for his bravery and perseverance.

http://egyptianchronicles.blogspot.com/2012/04/rip-ahmed-ben-bella.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+EgyptianChronicles+%28Egyptian+chronicles%29

Zioganda Alert: Ben Stein Lying For Israel

Big Ben knows that the official policy of Iran vis-a-vis Israel/Palestine is that they will accept any solution which is acceptable to the Palestinians.

The people who mistranslated the speech by Ahmedinajad (and many others) have acknowledged their "mistake". Ben Stein knows that Iran has never said they want to "wipe Israel off the map". Moreover, he knows they have no such wish. But the mistranslation received much attention while the retraction went underpublicized. Consequently the old lie is being recycled.

International capital has stolen Iraq and Libya, Iran is next on their to-do list.

And just for the record: His Holocaust numbers are wrong too.




[Discovered here.]

Propaganda Alert: NY pushes objection to BofA $8.5 billion mortgage pact

This is a charade folks, just political posturing. Schneiderman doesn't want to stop this deal. As I've written in this space, the settlement was an enormous give-away to the banks. The top bondholders--the big banks-- got the lion's share and individual investors got screwed, precisely what the banks wanted. Wall Street owns the prosecutors' offices and courts, and nobody but nobody gets to be AG in New York unless he's a team player.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/ny-pushes-objection-bofa-8-232545914.html

WTO Orders U.S. to Dump Landmark Obama Youth Anti-Smoking Law

A landmark U.S. health policy already was being struck down even as protestors surrounded the Supreme Court over the attack on President Obama's healthcare law. Behind closed doors in Geneva, a World Trade Organization (WTO) tribunal issued a final ruling ordering the U.S. to dump a landmark 2009 youth anti-smoking law.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lori-wallach/wto-smoking_b_1406417.html

German unions agree to more layoffs at Heidelberg

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/apr2012/heid-a11.shtml

California prepares thousands of government layoffs

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/apr2012/cali-a11.shtml

The YCMTSU Story O' The Day, April 11: Escape TO Colditz: Brits flock to notorious Nazi PoW camp after £20-a-night hotel opens up inside it

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2127239/Escape-Colditz-Notorious-Nazi-PoW-prison-reopens-20-night-hotel.html

The Real Polarization and the Manipulation of Populism

Good piece.

http://www.zcommunications.org/the-real-polarization-and-the-manipulation-of-populism-by-paul-street

Bourgeois Broadcasting Company Censorship Alert: BBC Censors “ Palestine ”, “Palestinian Holocaust”, “Palestinian Genocide” And “Anti-racist Jews”

http://www.countercurrents.org/polya100412.htm

What’s America’s Biggest National Security Threat?

This article is instructive in two ways: It reveals that "national security" concerns are but a thin disguise for the economic interests of the ruling class. And that the said class understand how destabilizing free markets are when the president of the CFR --the bankster's think tank-- discloses publicly that "...the challenge for the United States in the national security realm is to do things that reduce our vulnerability to the decisions and behaviors be it foreign governments or markets.”

Whether you take him to mean foreign or domestic markets or both is of no consequence, he states here that they create vulnerability. That is an unusually candid admission, particularly coming from whom it does.

http://www.countercurrents.org/chowdhury100412.htm

U.S. Abandons Final Pretense of Transparency or Inclusion of Consumer, Health, Environmental, Labor Perspective in Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Talks

http://citizen.typepad.com/eyesontrade/2012/04/us-abandons-final-pretense-of-transparency-or-inclusion-of-consumer-health-environmental-labor-persp.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+eyesontrade+%28Eyes+on+Trade%29

Getting Rich from the TSA Naked-Body Scanners

Capitalism is legalized larceny. Here, as always, we see the eternal unity of state and capital.

Both Soros and Chertoff are profiting from the naked-body scanners by way of the company Rapiscan, whose contract is worth $173 million. Lobbyists for this company include Susan Carr, a former senior legislative aide to Rep. David Price (D-N.C.) who is coincidentally chairman of the Homeland Security Subcommittee.

Former Homeland Security secretary Michael Chertoff was “flacking for Rapiscan,” writes Tim Carney of The Examiner:

After the undie-bomber attempt on Christmas 2009, Chertoff went on a media tour promoting the use of these scanners, without disclosing that he was getting paid by Rapiscan, one of the two companies currently contracted by TSA to take a nude picture of you at the airport.

Just days after the attempted Christmas attack, the New York Times explained:

Screening technologies with names like millimeter-wave and backscatter X-ray can show the contours of the body and reveal foreign objects. Such machines, properly used, are a leap ahead of the metal detectors used in most airports, and supporters say they are necessary to keep up with the plans of potential terrorists. "If they’d been deployed, this would pick up this kind of device," Michael Chertoff, the former homeland security secretary, said in an interview….

http://thenewamerican.com/economy/commentary-mainmenu-43/5240-getting-rich-from-the-naked-body-scanners

The YCMTSU Story Of The Day, April 9, 2012: China Cracks Down on Maoists

Newser) – The Chinese Communist Party is cracking down on people who are a little too enthusiastic about the man who led it to power in 1949. The firing of Chongqing party chief Bo Xilai, who led a Maoist revival, has been followed by a purge of websites promoting Mao Zedong-era songs and stories, along with ultra-leftist ideals. In Chongqing, music has been banned from a park where retirees used to wave red flags and sing patriotic anthems, reports the Los Angeles Times.

http://www.newser.com/story/142340/china-cracks-down-on-maoists.html

Transit Troubles Provoke National Day of Protests

http://labornotes.org/2012/04/transit-troubles-provoke-national-day-protests

Unions Struggle to Regroup As Verizon’s Hits Keep Coming

The workers had everything going for them: As a body they were well organized and determined, and they enjoyed massive public support, but their union decided to shut down the strike and the rest as they say is history.

Public interest in the strike was impressive. I wrote some updates about it and one took so many hits that I was receiving messages from Blogspot telling me to monetize. It was taking hundreds of hits an hour (quite a bit for this humble blog) until my counter stopped counting and the piece disappeared from Google's search engine.

All of that momentum was wasted when the union called off the strike, and the cuts are the inevitable result.

http://labornotes.org/2012/03/unions-struggle-regroup-verizons-hits-keep-coming

Obama Administration Pushes to Privatize Poultry Inspection

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Last Monday, members of American Federation of Government Employees union and food safety advocates rallied outside of the U.S. Department of Agriculture to protest a plan that they argue would essentially privatize poultry inspection. The USDA wants to expand a pilot program that currently allows 20 chicken slaughterhouses and five turkey slaughter houses to employ their own meat inspectors instead of using independently funded federal government inspectors.

The producers support this idea. Now why would they want to pay for something which is currently being provided for free? To ask such a question is to answer it.

Beware!

http://talkingunion.wordpress.com/2012/04/07/obama-administration-pushes-to-privatize-poultry-inspection/

The Battle Of Algiers

One of the greatest films ever made about war and politics.

http://tesla.liketelevision.com/liketelevision/tuner.php?channel=955&format=movie&theme=guide

USA : Assessing the Battle of Longview

Good piece.

http://www.europe-solidaire.org/spip.php?article24727

On Occupy movements in the United States – What Does Democracy Look Like?

http://www.europe-solidaire.org/spip.php?article24705

Karl Marx, Rosa Luxemburg and Che Guevara, by Adrienne Rich

Very nice.

http://www.europe-solidaire.org/spip.php?article24738#nb3

List of Shame: Goods Made with Forced, Child Labor

http://www.dol.gov/ilab/programs/ocft/PDF/2011TVPRA.pdf

Bourgeois Propaganda Alert: Lack of Competition Stifles Refinance Program for Underwater Homeowners

That's right folks, according to ProPublica the solution for capitalism's housing crash is more capitalism.

A couple of points to consider:

1, The bourgeois press has contained this discussion between two poles of economic thought either of which is favorable for capital. We had housing bubble whose bursting was not prevented (oddly enough) by the free market, we then had the state lurch into the breach with a "rescue" plan from which the capitalists who crashed the market prospered, and now we have the beneficiaries--the big banks--of this governmental largesse crowing for a freer hand. Apparently we are not handing our wealth over to them fast enough.

2, As should be obvious to anybody with two IQ points to rub together, HARP and the countless other aspects of the bailout/stimulus program were not undertaken for our benefit. It was claimed that these banks were too big to fail and their demise would cause universal misery. The HARP program shows clearly that this is not the case.

Analysts say that the big banks are set to make major profits off of the Home Affordable Refinancing Program, also known as HARP, which allows homeowners with loans backed by government-owned Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to refinance if they owe more than their home is worth.

http://www.propublica.org/article/lack-of-competition-stifles-refinance-program-for-underwater-homeowners

Public Education "Failure by Design,"

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article30985.htm

Indian rape victim immolates herself protesting delay in probe

http://bikyamasr.com/64968/indian-rape-victim-immolates-herself-protesting-delay-in-probe/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+BikyaMasrNews+%28Bikya+Masr+|+Independent+news+for+the+world%29

Greek pensioner’s public suicide sparks outrage across the country

His final words were reported to be “I won’t leave debts for my children” before killing himself in Syntagma Square near to the Greek parliament.

He left a letter saying, “I have no other way to react but to find a dignified end before I start sifting through garbage for food.” He also called for young people to rise up.

http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=28091

Poster O' The Day, April 3

Update on fall bus service changes for MetroKC: fair and balanced?

Update on fall bus service changes
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FROM:

King County Metro Transit

TO:

metrobusman@yahoo.com

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In recent months, we’ve heard from nearly 10,000 transit customers about our proposals to restructure bus service to be more productive and meet the needs of more people. That public input has helped shape the final September 2012 plan being submitted to the Metropolitan King County Council next week. This plan is aimed at being equitable, fair, and balanced regionally using the limited resources available.

Most of the final recommendations support the launch of the RapidRide C and D lines that will connect downtown Seattle to Ballard and West Seattle starting on Sept. 29. For that reason, the changes primarily affect service in Seattle and adjacent communities. Some of the revisions, such as the recommended changes to the routes 10, 11, 12, 123, and 125 will also improve the flow of buses through downtown Seattle, which will produce significant efficiencies for Metro’s overall system.

Not all of the changes originally proposed for this September will be part of the final plan. Some are being postponed for now, but could happen in the future. Several ideas needed further review and analysis. The following list highlights changes that have been made to the original proposals:

1. Postponing all routing changes to the 2 (north and south parts), 4 (north and south parts), 13, 14 (south part), 16, 24, 27, and 33;

2. Considering small changes to frequency and spans of service for routes 14 (north and south parts), 24, 27, and 124 to better align service with ridership during the evening hours;

3. Providing service to 32nd Ave NW and North Beach via a new Route 61;

4. Retaining weekday and Saturday service on Route 125;

5. Providing service to Nickerson Street on Queen Anne by revising Route 2 Express to provide peak service from Nickerson Street to downtown Seattle, and retaining Route 17 during weekday peak periods to provide service from downtown Seattle to the Ballard business district (northbound in the morning and southbound in the afternoon, with trips timed to meet Sounder Commuter Rail trips to/from Tacoma);

6. Retaining service to the VA hospital on Beacon Hill with the new Route 50 and proposed Route 60;

7. Revising new Route 50 to serve Alaska Junction and the North Delridge neighborhood; and

8. Revising Route 156 to maintain service on S 216th Street and 8th Avenue S between 200th and Des Moines Memorial Drive S.

To learn more about the final plan, visit: http://www.kingcounty.gov/haveasay.

People will have an opportunity to comment on the final September transit service plan at a scheduled public hearing of the King County Council’s Transportation, Economy and Environment Committee on Monday, April 16, from 6:00 pm to 8:30 pm at Sound Transit’s Board Room at Union Station (401 S. Jackson Street, Seattle). Members of the public are welcome to attend the meeting and to testify concerning the recommended service changes. There will be an open house at 6:00 pm, presentation at 6:30 pm, and opportunity to provide public testimony at 7:00 pm. To request a language interpreter or accommodations for persons with disabilities, please contact Paul Carlson, Council staff, at (206) 296-1673 by April 9. You may also submit comments to the King County Council email address for this topic at testimony@kingcounty.gov .



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Quote O' The Day, April 2

"If my soldiers were to begin to think, not one of them would remain in the army."

Frederick the Great

Vermont Postal Unions and Occupy Unite to Save the Mail

http://labornotes.org/2012/03/vermont-postal-unions-and-occupy-unite-save-mail

Supply Chain Workers Test Strength of Links

http://labornotes.org/2012/03/supply-chain-workers-test-strength-links

The Artist Taxi Driver On George Galloway's Surprise Election Victory

Good criticism and a good solution.

Warning Video Contains Adult Language

Barcelona’s workers and youth speak during Spain’s general strike

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/mar2012/spai-m31.shtml

Unions complicit in GM attack on European auto workers

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/mar2012/pers-m31.shtml

The Empire In Africa

Great documentary about Sierra Leone, but it could be anywhere in the world. This storyline is pretty much the same everywhere in the Third World, with the horrors becoming particularly acute in Africa now with Chinese and Indian imperialists joining the hunt.

And it all comes down to one word: capitalism.

Warning: This film, much to its detriment I believe, contains unbelievably graphic scenes, worse than anything I've ever seen. There are decapitations, heads on pikes, and vultures feeding on cadavers. It shouldn't be attempted on a full stomach.

It really is a shame as this documentary would be more useful without the gore.