<$BlogRSDUrl$>

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The Mt. Diablo Peace & Justice Center: Blood, Sweat & Tears: Asia's Poor Build U.S. Bases in Iraq

"Jing Soliman left his family in the Philippines for what sounded like a sure thing--a job as a warehouse worker at Camp Anaconda in Iraq. His new employer, Prime Projects International (PPI) of Dubai, is a major, but low-profile, subcontractor to Halliburton's multi-billion-dollar deal with the Pentagon to provide support services to U.S. forces."
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Muslims For Kucinich: Democrats: It's the War

"Ending the war in Iraq is right for a lot of reasons. The war was unjustified, unnecessary and unprovoked. It is counterproductive, strengthening al-Qaeda and weakening the moral authority of the United States. It is deadly: Many Americans, and many, many more Iraqis, have been killed or injured as a result of the fighting. And it is costly: Well over $250 billion in taxpayer funds have already been spent, with no end in sight."
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I am interested to know what this means: Is it tax deductable?

B A N C O: "Donations, no matter how big or small, needed for attorney fees. Make tax deductible check payable to:

Atty. Tat Parish
BANCO
1940 Union St.
Benton Harbor, MI 49022"
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WorldChanging: Another World Is Here: Fahamu -- Pan-African Text Messaging for Social Justice:

"Fahamu uses information communication technologies to conduct pan-African campaigns for human rights and social justice. Founded in 1997 by Firoze Manji, a former director of Amnesty International's Africa program, the 6-odd staffers at Fahamu work in Oxford, UK, and Durban and Cape Town, South Africa -- and coordinate with a network of like-minded writers, scholars, educators and activists worldwide."
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we need corporate Target bigwig e-mail addresses! | Announcements and Information | Help | Forum | Target Union!:

"Hey Targeteers! We need Target Execs e-mail addresses. So you folks who may be in management but have the heart of workers-send them in. We are kicking off a corportate campaign at Target Central (Mpls.)
Thanks!
Bernie Hesse,Organizer
Local 789
p.s. if Bob Ulrich is reading this, give me a call at 651-451-6240"
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The Real Rosa Parks :: ILCA Online :: Making Labor Media a Force to Be Reckoned With:

"We learn much from how we present our heroes. A few years ago, on Martin Luther King. Day, I was interviewed on CNN. So was Rosa Parks, by phone from Los Angeles. “We’re very honored to have her,” said the host. “Rosa Parks was the woman who wouldn’t go to the back of the bus. She wouldn’t get up and give her seat in the white section to a white person. That set in motion the year-long bus boycott in Montgomery. It earned Rosa Parks the title of ‘mother of the Civil Rights movement.’” I was excited to hear Parks’s voice and to be part of the same show. Then it occurred to me that the host’s description--the story’s standard rendition and one repeated even in many of her obituaries--stripped the Montgomery boycott of all of its context. Before refusing to give up her bus seat, Parks had been active for twelve years in the local NAACP chapter, serving as its secretary. The summer before her arrest, she’d had attended a ten-day training session at Tennessee’s labor and civil rights organizing school, the Highlander Center, where she’d met an older generation of civil rights activists, like South Carolina teacher Septima Clark, and discussed the recent Supreme Court decision banning “separate-but-equal” schools. During this period of involvement and education, Parks had become familiar with previous challenges to segregation: Another Montgomery bus boycott, fifty years earlier, successfully eased some restrictions; a bus boycott in Baton Rouge won limited gains two years before Parks was arrested; and the previous spring, a young Montgomery woman had also refused to move to the back of the bus, causing the NAACP to consider a legal challenge until it turned out that she was unmarried and pregnant, and therefore a poor symbol for a campaign."
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New Web Site for Protest Musicians :: ILCA Online :: Making Labor Media a Force to Be Reckoned With:

"New Web Site for Protest Musicians
By Marc Ribot, AFM

MusicMobe is a new Web site (www.MusicMobe.org) that reaches across borders and amplifies the many voices for peace, democracy, environmental protection and global justice. I became involved in this project while on tour in Europe during the most recent U.S. invasion of Iraq. Long before then I’d noticed an increasing rift between political opinion in the U.S. and that of the rest of the world.

But the depth of European opposition to the war at that time was unlike anything I’d ever seen. (I’ve spent a minimum of two months a year since 1984 touring in Europe on the jazz, new music and rock circuits.)

There were or had recently been demonstrations in virtually every town I played. Audience members, presenters and other musicians with whom I spoke were bereft at what was seen as overwhelming support for the war among Americans. These were not “anti-Americans” but often people with a deep and lifelong love of American music and culture.

As it happened, I and many other musicians did oppose the war. However, our opposition was seriously underreported in the news media. Even the New York Times, by its own admission, underreported opposition events. We felt a need to speak out directly while on tour, to correct the impression of unanimous consent created in the media.

How does MusicMobe work?

Using its interactive Web site, the project connects musicians who are touring internationally with organizations along their route and helps musicians speak out on issues they are concerned about.

The MusicMobe database will allow touring musicians to connect with organizations hosting events like rallies, marches and press conferences.

Artists set up a profile, selecting the kinds of issues they are interested in and activities they would consider and post their tour itineraries.
Organizations can invite artists to participate in various activities such as performing or speaking at one of the organization’s events, speaking at a press conference, or letting the organization have an information table at the artist’s own concert.

Musicians can accept any invitations they like, and the musician’s own contact information stays private. (Musicians and organizations have their own inboxes directly on MusicMobe.) Artists from around the world might eventually use MusicMobe to connect with organizations throughout the U.S.

This connection isn’t just a one way street. Organizations using the MusicMobe database can also be mobilized to support artists’ issues. This long-range goal should be of interest to union members. Distributors and record labels in today’s economy operate in a global economic space and can’t be successfully pressured by unions based in a single local.

Musicians need to develop organizations with a global reach if we’re ever to recover collective strength in the recording industry. When businesses are confronted in the entire space in which they operate, concessions can be won.

This was demonstrated in a miniature way during the recent fight for back royalties and rights to masters from Knitting Factory Records, which, along with the Knitting Factory nightclubs, is owned by KnitMedia. KnitMedia management agreed to negotiate only after protests by musicians in New York and outside the Los Angeles branch of the nightclub.

The fact that the protest happened on both sides of the country, that the artists were able to reach as far as the company they were fighting, helped the artists win. The ability to conduct actions such as this on a global level will expand our leverage.

To find out more about MusicMobe or to participate, visit www.MusicMobe.org or call (347) 342-5100.

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Marc Ribot is an internationally-known guitarist and a member of the New York City musicians' union (AFM Local 802); see www.MarcRibot.com. This story originally appeared in the November 2005 issue of Allegro, the newspaper of the New York City musicians' union (Local 802, American Federation of Musicians). You may reprint it as long as you credit the original source and author. The editor of Allegro, Mikael Elsila, can be reached at (212) 245-4802, ext. 179, or melsila@local802afm.org. (Note: when “Local 802” appears in the story, it refers to AFM Local 802, the musicians’ union local that covers New York City. See www.Local802AFM.org. for background.)"
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to the barricades:

"NYU Grad Students, through GSOC/Local 2110 UAW, have authorized a strike this morning which will result in a complete stoppage of work by graduate students in response to the administration's refusal to renew their contract, which expired on August 31, 2005 (the National Labor Relations Board, composed largely of apointees from a reactionary Bush administration, determined, contrary to a 2000 ruling, that universities do not have to negotiate with graduate student unions). A contract "offered" to the union by the administration in August was "little more than a public relations stunt" which acquiesced to none of the principal demands in an acceptable fashion.

The previous contract - the first given to graduate students at a private university - granted graduate students higher wages (a 40% increase), health benefits, childcare support, procedures for grievance resolution, workplace democracy, and generally improved working conditions"
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Bob's Links and Rants: War on terror won--ten years ago:

"The war on terror will not be won until Iraq is completely and verifiably deprived of weapons of mass destruction.

-- Dick Cheney, December 2, 2002

That's from a long list of quotes Tom Tomorrow compiled documenting the primacy of the WMD argument in the misadministration's buildup to the Iraq war, regardless of what the wingnut revisionist historians try to tell us now."
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Radio interview from WCBN: Black Box Radio

"1. To listen to a short radio interview of Dorothy
and Rev. Pinkney, (approx. 10 min.):

http://radio.indymedia.org/news/2005/10/7409.php

2. As in a bygone era when racism was the norm and police oppression considered business-as-usual, Benton Harbor cops and Berrien County sheriffs are blanketing the city for witnesses who will agree to give false testimony against Rev. Pinkney. Tax payer money is funding the effort as officers spend their days driving from homes to apt. complexes to soup kitchens, trying to coerce residents into lying on the stand at Rev. P.'s upcoming frame-up trial. (no date yet)

This is all going on whithout any outcry or action from social justice groups, the ACLU, NAACP, Dept. of Justice, or anyone in Lansing..... just a renegade county system doing it's thing to ruin lives. Right here in the state of Michigan, people and organizations in power look on without blinking their eyes.

Donations, no matter how big or small, needed for attorney fees. Make tax deductible check payable to:

Atty. Tat Parish
BANCO
1940 Union St.
Benton Harbor, MI 49022

THANK YOU in advance.
--Rev. Edward Pinkney, 269-925-0001"
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Pockets

"Reading the novel through my 26 year-old blue eyes in the summer of 2005, it struck me that Garcia Marquez’s portrayal of the social relationships that foster love and sustain his characters’ ability to hope, defies the nuclear familial structure of husband, wife and kids. It is a good reminder that, in spite of the Christian Coalition’s claim that the heterosexual nuclear family is the as the only moral tradition of love, alternative constructions of a loving/sexual/romantic relationship have existed at least as long as prostitution (“the world’s oldest profession”)"

That is what I am saying...
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"Affirmative action, the policy of giving preferences for jobs, university admissions, or government contracts to members of designated racial and ethnic groups, has never been popular, and it could soon be abolished. In 2003, the Supreme Court struck down an undergraduate admissions policy at the University of Michigan that provided extra points for minority applicants. At the same time, the Court approved by a single vote the more subjective practice of taking race into account as one factor among several in admissions to the university's law school. The change of one vote (by the recently confirmed Chief Justice John Roberts?) would have meant the end of overt affirmative action in higher education. The trend against affirmative action in the states is even more pronounced. In California and Washington constitutional referendums have banned the government from using affirmative action in any of its activities. Other states have ended or severely limited affirmative action by executive authority.

More remarkable than the current opposition to affirmative action is the fact that it ever came into existence in the first place. On its face, the policy seems to violate one of the most basic American values—the idea that individual merit as manifested in a fair and open competition should be rewarded. A practice that seems to go against the individualistic and meritocratic American ethos is clearly vulnerable to an attack that is likely to be persuasive to many of those who do not stand to benefit from it. Moreover, affirmative action seems contrary to the emphasis on colorblindness that was characteristic of the civil rights movement of the Fifties and early Sixties, and was expressed in the language of its greatest achievement—the Civil Rights Act of 1964."
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Labor Unions in contemporary America: Down but not out

"Despite the vicious resistance of employers to unionizing, organizing is not only vital to the growth of unions but is imperative to their very survival. If unions do not wish to be some oddity studied in political science textbooks, unionists must be sent to every American workplace. Sad to say, not only is the future of American unions at stake but also the viability of American progressivism. Political discourse in this nation centers on social issues such as abortion and gay marriage, and there is a real paucity of debate on matters that actually impact the daily lives of Americans, such as the stunning loss of manufacturing jobs. Labor unions are the perfect mechanism to channel working-class Americans into adherents of the ideals of social justice. Progressivism seeks fair wages for work and a decent quality of life for all. Unions must convince Americans that these are achievable and worthwhile goals."
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7 Reasons Why You Should Vote to Study Draft Registration

"This site is a crime against the Military Selective Service Act. It advocates. We are specifically encouraging resistance to the registration laws of the United States, seeing registration as the necessary step toward conscription (the draft). We are what the Selective Service calls 'anti-war intellectuals.' We see the direct link between registration, the draft, and aggressive war. Remember, non- registration is the strategy to beat the draft. If enough of us refuse, there is nothing they can do!"
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To many of us "slavery" - the buying and selling of people - is a word that
echoes a brutal time in our past. But there are countless women, men, and
children forced into labor, sexually exploited and subjected to abuse each
and every day. Human trafficking is modern day slave trading.

What can you and I do about this scourge? First, you can take action on this
urgent human rights issue. Sign a petition that calls on Congress to take
strong measures to improve human rights protections for people trafficked to
the United States.

SIGN THE PETITION:
http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/ctt.asp?u=484957&l=14852

Then, invite your friends over to watch the Lifetime mini-series Human
Trafficking starring Mira Sorvino, an Academy Award Winner and spokesperson
for Amnesty International USA's Stop Violence Against Women campaign.

Human Trafficking airs tonight, Monday, October 24 and Tuesday, October 25
on Lifetime TV at 9 PM ET/PT.

Stand up and speak out against the horrors of human trafficking.

Sincerely,

Bill Schulz
Executive Director
Amnesty International USA

P.S. We need your help. Please make a donation today in support of Amnesty
International's ongoing work to end the rampant violence against women and
girls at home and abroad.

DONATE NOW:
http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/ctt.asp?u=484957&l=14846
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Take Action: Time is running out to save the Arctic Refuge!: "The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is under attack and we don’t have a minute to spare. We need your help right now to stop oil drilling in the Arctic Refuge before it's too late.

But time is running out. Please edit our letter below as you see fit, then click on the 'Send this Message' button. Remember that if you take just a minute or two to add your own words, you increase the impact of your letter enormously."
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Lift the Prophetic Voice:
Witness to the Human Cost of the Iraq War

An Interfaith Public Witness on Nov. 1

On all Saint's Day, Tuesday, November 1, the Fellowship of
Reconciliation, together with Reclaiming the Prophetic Voice, is
urging clergy and people of faith to converge on district
Congressional Offices around the country, speaking out against
the immorality and illegality of the Iraq War and against the
abuse and torture of detainees in U.S. custody.

All Saint's Day, devoted to prayers for the dead, falls two
weeks after the Jewish holiday of Sukkot when prayers are said
for the protection of God's peace, and two days before the end
of Ramadan, the Islamic month of fasting and atonement.
convergence of religious holy days invites prophetic witness,
atonement for our government's immoral conduct and activism to
end the war.

Right now, we are helping to organize public witnesses on Nov. 1
at the district offices of Congressional Representatives
throughout the country. IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO ORGANIZE A WITNESS
IN YOUR COMMUNITY, call 845-358-4601 or e-mail
PropheticVoiceNov1@yahoo.com

Witnesses will include a liturgy of prayer, including recitation
of the Jewish Mourner's Kaddish, and readings from the Quran.
They will be followed by a public reading of the names of U.S.
soldiers and Iraqi civilians who have been killed in this war.
The list of names will be provided to those who call or e-mail
the contacts above. Go to http://ga3.org/ct/ud_BXq91VRc6/ for
full details and resource materials such as flyers, sample
letters to the editor, etc.

If you haven't already done so, please sign the Petition to
Investigate Torture. You may sign it online at
http://petitions.forusa.org/petition.php?petition_id=5 or you
can download the petition to present to your Congressperson. Go
to
http://www.forusa.org/programs/iraq/documents/Torturepetition.pdf
to download.

Remember, to sign up to participate, or to help organize this
event, please call (845) 358-4601 or email:
PropheticVoiceNov1@yahoo.com
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Notes from:

SOLE presents: Birth of Labor Movement 10/25/05

Flint “sit-down” strike of 1936 and 1937 at GM (worlds largest corporation)

“important to starting a middle class in America”
“workers rights… chance to make a decent wage”
“demanded to be treated like human beings”
“not about money”

Women’s Emergency Brigade – Film about 40th Anniversary
Forefront of “today’s women”
Took food to the strikers
“We were the pioneers of the labor movement”
No health benefits, no unemployment, no Social Security
No safety equipment- people were not told about previous injuries
Plants thought that women would ask fewer questions and accept lower pay
Had to accept sexual harassment to keep jobs “if you were the kind of girl who didn’t mind men patting you where men shouldn’t be patting you, you were pretty well assured of a job”
One entire department was treated for venereal disease
Held over the women’s heads.
Men were treated badly
Hurt families, wives
“Flint was famous for churches and beer gardens…. The churches were for the women”
GM controlled all of Flint (judges, etc.)
Many women thought it was a bad idea to strike against the various components of the corporation (A.C. Sparkplugs. Etc.)
Company planted distrust in wives- told wives that their husbands were not at union meetings, were actually at pool halls , etc.
At first, women were asked to leave strikes to discourage press coverage of “sexual mingling”
Women’s Auxiliary founded to support husbands who were striking(Fisher 1 and Fisher 2)
Some women organized children’s picket lines
People called them “communists” but “then they were bragging about their pensions and they don’t know how they got them”
Socialist and Communist Party did assist- “without the education and the know-how that they gave us, we wouldn’t have been able to do it”
Battle fought between GM “goons” and strikers in front of Flint-Fisher Two
Women crossed the police lines and joined “in solidarity”
Founded a women’s brigade
(wore red berets)
National Guard called in – January, 1937
February 11, 1937- GM signs contract agreement- end of strike
Geraldine Blankenshipp
Father was a vice-president of the sit-down
“Ding-man”- paid slightly better
“Child of the depression”
Husband-to-be put on doors
Inhumane conditions
Would use and keep teargas
Extreme heat (120 degrees)
No overtime pay
Bribe foreman with food and other things
Father held secret meetings- family did not know they were planning strike
Talked a little bit about what she thought of unions now
Mentioned Rosa Parks

thanks to jane coaston
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Nurses chide California Pacific

"union members claim conditions are deteriorating. 'We are functioning like the Third World,' said Neca Claus, a registered nurse in labor and delivery at the hospital's California Street location. 'It is absolutely filthy, and the working conditions are horrible.'"
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Unofficial strike closed the Stockholm Subway | Municipal Transportation Workers Industrial Union 540 | Department 500 - Transportation and Communication | News - All Departments and Unions | Industrial Workers of the World

"The Stockholm Subway closed for five hours in an unofficial strike by the train-drivers on Thursday the 6th of October.

...

Since a couple of years the Subway has been run by the multinational company Connex, and the unions have felt that money nowdays are more interesting in the public transportation then issues as security and good working conditions."
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hyalineskies 6.0 beta � The allure of throwing cameras

"It's definitely old news by now, but I'm still amazed by the weirdest photographic method that I've seen on Flickr: cameratoss. For those unfamiliar with the process, you set your camera's shutter to a long exposure time, push the shutter release, and throw it in the air. Physics does the rest of the work, and you can come up with some surprisingly cool results. Most of the time, though, your toss yields a rather unsatisfactory, blurry blob."
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Women will be competing with men in many sports in the next few years...

Humanize the Earth! � You Throw Like A Girl

"via Brutal Women: 15-year-old girl throws three touchdowns

I love when our expectations are challenged. Stereotypes might feel true in aggregate yet they don't tell the whole story. Ever."
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I like the design of this website. I especially like their use of turning their OlderTechnology?
newsletter into an online NewerTechnology?. I would like it to open in the browser, but maybe that is browser specific to Firefox and I am temporarily using Safari.

New Detroit - The Coalition

"Addressing the issue of race relations is similar to putting a puzzle together. In race relations, every positive action taken by individuals, organizations, and businesses connects to close the gap"
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Email is an OlderTechnology and needs processing to NewerTechnology. A rather tedious step, especially for the YoungEnergy low tech techies... just means we have to [BludgeonTheData] until someone fixes the fracken thing!

Official Google Blog: Guess what just turned 34?

"It's difficult to pin down the exact origin of email, but in October 1971, an engineer named Ray Tomlinson chose the '@' symbol for email addresses and wrote software to send the first network email.At the time, it must not have seemed very important, nobody bothered to save that first message or even record the exact date. I've always thought that it would be fun to witness a little bit of history like that to be there when something important happened. That's part of what drove me to join a little no-name startup named Google, and it's why I was excited when I was given a chance to create a new email product, now called Gmail."
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Just wanted to reminded people that today is the anniversary of the first week in which a 40 hour work week was the law. The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 ----the law that stopped the 30 hour work week movement, gave us the 40 hour work week and our first true weekend, the 65 anniversay of which will be this Friday.

Please join SOLE (I wich they had a weblog) today for:

STATE OF THE UNION
The story of the Birth of the American Labor Movement told by the men
and women who were there.

GM WORKERS AND MEMBERS OF THE WOMEN'S BRIGANDE
from the
1937 FLINT SIT DOWN STRIKE

and a film screening detailing their heroic stand for workers rights.

Tuesday, October 25, 5pm, Michigan Room in the Michigan League (map)

FREE DINNER PROVIDED

tx for the email Mark and CG!

hopefully CrossPosted in Arbor Update
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onegoodmove: Bill Maher / Arianna Huffington

"Arianna Huffington on Real Time with Bill Maher discussing Plamegate and the lucky sperm club."
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Fruits of Our Labour: I Blog Because...

"I blog because...

'I do not write to earn a living or to build a reputation. I write to
battle enemies."
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Flagrancy to Reason

"we were all wrong: Of course everybody believed Iraq had weapons of mass destruction! Huffington dares play revisionist historian by requesting examples of folks who didn't get it wrong, and we fear the balance of good and evil in the universe might be terribly upset by such flagrant violations of narrative principle.

Because I'm feeling nihilistic today here's 10 minutes worth of google searches:"
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for-real-things-I-know

"One thing I tend to repeat is that the mainstream media does a FANTASTIC job. Day in and day out, they turn in an extraordinary performance at what they exist to do. And that is to make as much money as possible.

...

So, I believe progressives need to let go of the hope that the mainstream media is ever going to be much different from what it is today. We can't change much about reality if we keep hoping Santa Claus will bring us presents, because there is no Santa Claus."
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Bombs and Shields

"...said that he committed the arson on behalf of the Earth Liberation Front because he is a 'political anarchist' opposed to “corporate capitalism.” Clay County District Court Judge Galen Vaa discussed taking restitution for a terroristic threats charge out of any money Tucker would earn in prison. Tucker said that it wouldn't be an issue because “[he didn't] plan on working.”"
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TPMCafe || More on Labor's Demise and Our Sinking Standard of Living

"when the number for private sector organized workers is now down to 7.9%, it's difficult to garner the kind of collective strength you need to take on something as revolutionary as globalization, but that's what the unions--private and public sector together--need to do and they need to figure out new and creative ways to do it."
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Venezuela's Emerging Trade Union Movement :: ILCA Online :: Making Labor Media a Force to Be Reckoned With

"The trade union movement in Venezuela has undergone important transformations in the last four years. From being led by mainly class-collaborationist leaders more closely tied to the oligarchy than to the working class (in the Venezuelan Confederation of Workers – CTV), the new trade union federation, the National Workers Union of Venezuela (UNT) has taken the lead in organizing on the basis of winning gains for workers and building their political power."
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Group: Repression of unions on the rise

"A total of 145 people worldwide were killed because of their union activities in 2004, 16 more than in the previous year, according to the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions' survey of worldwide working conditions.

Those figures reveal 'just how far many governments and employers are prepared to go in suppressing workers' rights to seek a competitive edge in increasingly cutthroat global markets,' said Guy Rider, general secretary of ICFTU, a group representing 234 labor organizations globally."
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Left Bank Blogger

"Today, as an Education Minnesota AFL-CIO member, I attended my statewide union's professional development conference held annually in Saint Paul. Feeling the freedoom that comes with two days off from work, I attended two truly excellent sessions, and I was very pleased to have decided to come to the conference. It seems fewer and fewer people attend with every passing year, which is a shame, given that the conference provides teachers with opportunity to meet as workers and experience together the joy of improving their art."
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YAL: Young Angry Liberal

"Now, before you jerk your knees and call me a conspiracy theorist for mentioning the CIA, why don’t you go look at the actual government documents that depict how the CIA put Pinochet in power, and how it contributed to the suffering and deliberate extermination of Chilean people?"
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The Michigan Daily -- 114 Years of Editorial Freedom - Strikers: Regent an insult to Miller

"One union member said Newman’s presence at the event was hypocritical. “From what I’ve read about Arthur Miller, he was very outspoken on social injustices, just the opposite of what (Newman) speaks for,” said Ralph Neopolitan, a mechanic for Northwest and an AMFA member."
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Industry Insider: Contracts align for national hotel strike

"'Never before has a hotel labor union had as much negotiation power as it will in 2006,' Lerner said in a note to investors. 'The ultimate risk is a 'national' hotel labor strike.'

The main issues, Lerner said, are workers' rights, health benefits, wages, staffing levels, length of contract and pension benefits, among other things. Companies with the greatest exposure include Hilton, Starwood and Hyatt, although InterContinental, Fairmont, Marriott and Four Seasons also could be affected to a lesser degree. Lerner said UNITE-HERE wants to deal with hotel management at a corporate level rather than at each property, where negotiations have historically taken place."
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UPMC official questions unions - PittsburghLIVE.com

"Surveys show that 72 percent of American workers would join a union if they were not afraid of being fired..."
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Food co-op board resists pro-union measure

"Pro-union activists are demanding that the board and managers of the Brattleboro Food Co-op step aside and remain neutral if a simple majority of the staff say they want a union.

The board and staff say they’re already neutral. Yet they are actively opposing a members’ initiative on the co-op’s annual ballot that would institute a new bylaw requiring management to take a position of “proactive neutrality.”"
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Wobblies mark 100 years with songs, stories, unvarying beliefs

"While the mainstream American labor movement has emphasized collective bargaining, backed by the threat of a strike, as the way to increase wages, strengthen job security and improve working conditions, the Wobblies, as they call themselves, maintained a more ambitious agenda.

Just as it did in 1905, the preamble of the labor organization's constitution calls for doing away with capitalism and abolishing the wage system.

Because it concentrates power among the wealthy, capitalism is fundamentally anti-democratic"
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YAL: Young Angry Liberal

"Now, before you jerk your knees and call me a conspiracy theorist for mentioning the CIA, why don’t you go look at the actual government documents that depict how the CIA put Pinochet in power, and how it contributed to the suffering and deliberate extermination of Chilean people?"
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Metroactive Features | Techsploits

"Traditionally, labor organizers have communicated with their membership on the picket lines via newsletters or at meetings. The idea of starting a strikers' blog is a break with this tradition because it gives rank-and-file strikers the chance to talk to the world and each other without going through their higher-ups."

>also see: CommunicateOrDie.org
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Think Progress: Fox News Pushing “Criminalization of Politics” Talking Point

"Conservative defenders of Karl Rove and Scooter Libby have settled on their No. 1 talking point: the grand jury investigation into the CIA leak scandal represents the “criminalization of politics.”

In other words, they say, the outing of a covert CIA agent in a time of war to punish a whistleblower is just everyday “politics” — nothing out of the ordinary, certainly nothing criminal. In fact, according to conservatives (as articulated by the National Review), the “criminalizing of politics” is actually “the most dangerous fire of this ordeal.”

To spread this talking point across the nation, the right has received a major assist from Fox News. According to a database search, every single television reference to the CIA leak scandal as the “criminalization of politics” in the last 30 days has been on Fox. Even more stunning: on every occassion, the phrase was introduced into the segment by a Fox News anchor or correspondent, never by a guest."
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Eric Lee: Just the two of us

"Behind me sat Jonathan Tasini, whose daily coverage of news from the AFL-CIO and the new coalition has turned his blog into a 'must-read' for many union officials. (His blog is at http://workinglife.org/ .)

And that was it. From what I could tell, out of the 1,000 or so people in the hall, we were the only two taking advantage of the new technologies to provide live coverage of the event.

The technical requirements for doing live blogging from an event like this one are pretty simple and clear. You need access to the net, ideally wireless, high-speed access. The Change to Win convention organizers were providing this free of charge.

You need a place to put your content on the web, and there are plenty of completely free places to do so. Blogger.com is a good place to get a free blog and there are many others."
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TPMCafe || The Law on Secondary Strikes

"Workers live in a world exempt from the First Amendment where all of their communication to one another can be tightly regulated by the government-- and the courts have zero constitutional problem with that."
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Sutter Strikers Blog: Sutter brutality won't deter us

"It’s midmorning, day 32 of the strike, and I’ve just come from the lines at CPMC’s Pacific Campus. I must tell you, I—and our striking members—are shocked by the unprovoked attack early this morning by the paramilitary thugs hired by Sutter Corporation to “protect” their facilities. There were about 150 caregivers on the lines at 5 a.m. at Pacific Campus, picketing and peacefully demonstrating when the “men in black” from the mercenary Steele Foundation unleashed a violent confrontation with our members. Several strikers were hit and kicked by the guards. One member was kicked in the stomach so hard she required ER treatment. Witnesses to the assault alerted SF police and the offending guard was arrested. "
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MoxieGrrrl.com: Time To Join The Republicans!
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to the barricades

"The Nazi march didn't quite go as planned thanks to the vigilance of the poor black residents of Toledo at whom the march was aimed."
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TPMCafe || More on Labor's Demise and Our Sinking Standard of Living

"when the number for private sector organized workers is now down to 7.9%, it's difficult to garner the kind of collective strength you need to take on something as revolutionary as globalization, but that's what the unions--private and public sector together--need to do and they need to figure out new and creative ways to do it."
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Bob's Links and Rants: Cheap Labor Conservatives

"That's from Washington Post columnist Steve Pearlstein, writing in an online chat on Wednesday. The discussion dealt mostly with the Delphi wage cuts and bankruptcy. Unfortunately, Pearlstein is probably right--IF you accept his assumptions. Those assumptions, which are either stated explicitly or implied throughout the chat, include:

* Free market capitalism is the best way to run things.
* Unfettered global competition is not only inevitable, but actually good.
* The United States will not adopt universal health care.
* Greedy unions demanding decent wages and benefits for their workers are to blame for all of the auto industry's problems, not greedier executives demanding and getting outrageous salaries and golden parachutes."
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Toledo Tales: White And NSM Prepare For Toledo Rally

"Bill White and his National Socialist Movement (ed. note read Nazis) were in furious preparation for the group's Toledo performance on Saturday."
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to the barricades: That is a Palestinian school cut in two by The Wall


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to the barricades

"RFID is one of the scariest pieces of technology ever to be conceived. It's like a portable telescreen. There have been proposals to put them in driver's licenses, passports...Shit, even human beings - apparently the Mexico City police department has implanted these sorts of chips in some its officers."

I have posted about this previously, and because of the new search tool from Google that I have at the bottom of the page, I can search this site to find the stuff! Yea!

>Random RFID Update: Microchipping License Plates
>Japan: Schoolkids to be tagged with RFID chips
>The Trouble with RFID
>RFID Tags in New US Notes Explode When You Try to Microwave Them
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mousemusings

"Who would have thunk it!

Attention Corporations: America's tarnished image may soon hurt your bottom lines."
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mousemusings

"Park Service managers now must be screened for Bush loyalty
Managers must be screened by Park Service headquarters and by the Assistant Secretary for Fish, and Wildlife, and Parks. They must be willing to lead their employees in Bush's Management Agenda, which includes outsourcing to replace civil servants, the use of faith-based initiatives, and rollbacks of civil service rights."
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Bush Teleconference With Soldiers Staged

"It was billed as a conversation with U.S. troops, but the questions President Bush asked on a teleconference call Thursday were choreographed to match his goals for the war in Iraq and Saturday's vote on a new Iraqi constitution."

Including a flack posing as a soldier
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karmalised: bushcommission.org

"The Commission of Inquiry on Crimes Against Humanity Committed by the Bush Administration of the United States will convene at: 4:00 PM Friday October 21 and 12 Noon Saturday October 22 in the Grand Ballroom of the Manhattan Center, 311 W. 34th Street, New York City.

The Commission will take testimony and judge evidence on indictments concerning aggressive war, detention and torture as well as reviewing evidence as to whether crimes were committed before during and after Hurricane Katrina. The detention and torture section will be on Friday, Katrina on Saturday."
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karmalised: The right to be violated when necessary: The Iraqi Bill of Rights."
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Kathryn Cramer: Satellite and Aerial Photos of the Pakistan Earthquake Zone: the Face of Death

Some people are saying 200,000 dead....
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Hospital strike a standoff / CEO, union president trade barbs at California Pacific

"Brotman said two of the key issues separating the sides, the education fund and the staffing issue, can be negotiated"

Well why aren't they then negotiated? If the boss says they can be, then why not? Only one issue left after that.
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Sault Ste. Marie: Fear, emotions run high at Bahweting forum

"Other parents present disagreed, however, and asked the teachers to continue. ”We cannot control what others do, only what we do. That's what the union is about,“ a teacher replied.

MEA organizer David Crim took the floor to debunk widespread parent belief that a union vote would cancel BIA funding. Crim said that while Bahweting is the first Indian school in Michigan to unionize, teachers at 22 Indian schools in New Mexico are represented by labor unions."
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The Daily Journal - Meyerson: The vanishing middle

"That’s no small task in a nation where the legal protections for union organizing have eroded to the point of nonexistence. But in a nation whose economically secure working class has gone the way of the dodo, few tasks are more important."
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Clearly, Matthew Damon doesn't understand what a union is. A unions member are not their customers. A unions members are the union. Unions enjoy a higher success rate with card check laws, because workers feel less fear, and companies have less time to "beat up" on workers before an election that is scheduled out 3 months from filing. Duhh.

St. Paul Pioneer Press | 10/13/2005 | Card checks to unionize erode fairness for workers

"The future of American organized labor may, as Brendan G. Cummins asserted in his Viewpoint column (Oct. 2), depend on the use of 'card checks' as a way for unions to win the right to represent employees. Labor claims, and research supports, that unions enjoy a higher rate of organizing success by soliciting signed authorization cards than by winning employees' votes in elections. But the implication that whatever makes union organizing easier is therefore desirable begs the bigger questions: Should we protect organized labor from its own marketplace, in which it has largely failed to inspire or retain its customers, and at what price to the employees they seek to represent?"
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First Amendment Center

"A National Labor Relations Board decision might be poison for the inflatable rats that labor organizations have been using for more than a decade to demonstrate at job sites employing nonunion workers.

An NLRB administrative law judge agreed with business owners that using the rat balloons constituted unlawful picketing in two cases involving the Laborers’ Eastern Region Organizing Fund in New York."

Gotta love the NLRB!
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funferal: Pinter wins nobel prize

"Harold Pinter is the 2005 Nobel laureate in literature. As Wikipedia notes:

Pinter opposed the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan and 2003 Invasion of Iraq. In 2005 he announced that he was retiring from writing plays to dedicate himself to political campaigning. Pinter is an avowed critic of the Iraq war and famously called President Bush a mass murderer and Blair a deluded idiot."
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pilfered from: Suds & Soliloquies: I Support More Troops Than You

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The movie The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till
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Flagrancy to Reason

"Amerindian Day: columbus day again? Already? That much maligned founder of the Atlantic trade slave 'did no evil'. Really!

update: It's remotely possible, in light of some disagreement as to whether Columbus did no evil, that I made some reasonable comments. Probably not:

The designation of national holidays is a political process, it is in its very nature a political game. When it was declared a federal public holiday in 1968 it was already proven - seven years previous - that the Vikings had been here long before Columbus, nevermind that the bering straight was established as the route for the earliest American explorers. Johnson could have named it 'American explorer day' or some such."
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Sutter Strikers Blog: Wednesday on the picket lines

"well, just spent another wednesday on the picket line. it was quite different this time as last wednesday i came late and went to the rally and this wednesday i came in at 5 in the morning. when the scab vans came in the gaurds pulled out the barriers and left nowhere for us to picket (this is our right, i might add) except the street and edge of street. then they pushed us when we got too close to them and told us 'dont push me'. things are getting more heated since sunday,when (i heard) they cornered a few of our picketers after they left the area where the scab bus comes in. they apparently surrounded the picketers and pushed and 'talked shit' to them. things on the line really havent been the same since. lots of pushing and shoving and name calling and all that unneeded stuff. pretty annoying, not to mention, unprofessional! guess sutter feels comfortable with these goons they have hired. well, i dont!!! and i dont like being pushed around ..i dont deserve it and neither does anyone else."
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Sutter Strikers Blog: On the Side of Justice

"I was thinking this morning about the strike activity of the past week and some of the highlights. We’ve moved forward in our steady campaign to expose the ugly and unethical behavior of the scab outfits CPMC has brought in to staff its hospitals. We’ve learned that HCSS—the scab agency run by deadbeat dad and convicted felon Gary Fanger—failed to pay its payroll taxes. I guess we can add tax dodger to Fanger’s rap sheet."
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Better get hit in yo' soul | The Bellman

"Last Days Bible Church has taken a novel step to prepare people for the Rapture: under each seat in the sanctuary is an airline-style safety card giving instructions for what to do when the Rapture takes place."

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Curly Tales of War Pigs: organizing

"There is no better way to get a better candidate than this.

After flexing their muscles and wallets in the last two national elections, Indian tribes across the country say they're ready to do more, and they've picked Shakopee for their launching pad.

The Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux will host the tribes' first national Indian candidate boot camp starting Thursday. It was organized by INDN List, a potentially powerful new player on the national political scene dedicated to recruiting and training Indian political candidates.


I noticed that Jeff Blodgett will be running the G.O.T.V. sessions. Jeff runs these sections for Camp Wellstone and does an outstanding job. You can count on these 'boot camps' producing a lot of success stories for years to come, and exciting thing for grass roots politics."
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unbossed.com � Kleptocracy - Coming to an Environment Near You

"Kleptocracy: not just government by theft; government by the institutionalization of theft.

Folks, the piggy bank is being raided - has been raided for years. We sort of know that Halliburton is getting special favors, cops looking the other way while it bilks us - the US taxpayers. It's gotten more blatant with the super-duper sweetheart contracts and special suspensions of laws since Hurricane Katrina, but really, it's just business as usual for this administration."
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Mark Maynard - wall to wall brownies

"Last week, Paul Krugman had a great column entitled “Find the Brownie.” In it, he suggested that we make a game of ferreting out Bush appointees, like Mike “Brownie” Brown at FEMA, “whose only apparent qualifications for that job are political loyalty and personal connections,” people who were potentially putting us all in danger.

Even though the article was behind the impenetrable wall of Times Select the article still made a pretty big mark on the Blogosphere, even leading to the creation of a Find the Brownie site, where whistleblowers could leave tips. Now, in the same spirit, The New Republic has a great piece on the “hackocracy” that’s flourishing under Bush."
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mousemusings: Rebuilding New Orleans As Model “Green” City

"Imagine.
This article is full of suggestions and resources. There is no reason it can't be done. No reason at all."
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TalkLeft: Mayor Contends Program to Help Soldiers is 'Anti-Army'

"The mayor of Colorado Springs refuses to support a program that matches volunteer mental health counselors with soldiers who served in Iraq because, he says, the program’s supporters are “anti-war” and “anti-Army.” The two men who organized the program both served in Iraq. What’s anti-Army about their desire to help soldiers cope with the stress and trauma of war?"
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Alas, a blog � Blog Archive � I’m not just an incubator

"Treating pregnant women as incubators with no needs or wishes of their own isn't just anti-feminist, it's probably also counter-productive. If the medical establishment doesn't seem interested in meeting my needs, I'm going to start trusting it less."
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As I posted earlier about the Smurfs under attack:

The People's Republic of Seabrook: Oh, the humanity....: "The only thing missing was the Smurf gore and copious amounts of blue Smurf blood spilled over the landscape. Add a few headless or limbless smurfs, and you’ve got yourself a headline-grabbing fundraising appeal…or a Goya painting gone horribly wrong."

A kind anonymous person filled my request for some video (wmv download
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NSF - move on please, and kids to, move on.

we make money not art: Hussein Chalayan

This was shocking:



Not sure about the idea: "Other shows have revealed a social conscience absent elsewhere in the fashion industry: naked models wearing dresses based on the traditional Islamic chador, as a comment on the treatment of women in Muslim societies."
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Play: What I Heard About Iraq | the propeace community site

"I saw the play 'What I heard About Iraq' at the Fountain Theater (www.fountaintheater.com) in East Los Angeles this past Thursday. I knew very little about it before hand, only that it was based on an article written by Elliot Weinberger by that same name. The play opened with five performers sitting in wooden chairs strewn across the stage. On the screen behind them, the date '1992' appeared. One performer stood up and said, 'I heard that Dick Cheney, then Secretary of Defense say...' One by one the performers came to life sharing what they heard various officials says about the war in Iraq. We hear the perspectives of US politicians, US Soldiers, and the Iraqi people, the performers constantly interchanging their roles. As the play draws to an end, we hear the climbing numbers of the causalities of the Iraqi people and of our US soldiers. It's a chilling, intense, disturbing and powerful performance. When all these verifiable quotes that you've heard over the years are condensed into 70minutes, I couldn't help but feel shaken."
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Jesus' General

"I'm disappointed that the White House released this document for the Harriet Miers nomination hearings. I had hoped that they'd stick to their guns and refuse to release anything."

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Teachers: The Bane of Society | Citizen Chris

"In my ongoing effort to influence the electorate to vote NO on Prop 75 here is an opinion piece from a couple of the people that are a grave threat to society…a nurse and a school teacher. Well it is all to evident that when such low life individuals as kindergarten teachers are opposing this proposition that we should all reexamine where we stand. For example our friends that are supporting Prop 75 are highlighted here in this amusing if not satirical web site…www.millionairesforprop75.com"
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Bob's Links and Rants: The New Pravda at work

"Billmon refers to the NY Times as the 'New Pravda.' In this article, the Times almost does its job, but still backs away, insisting on presenting both sides of the argument--the incorrect one as well as the correct one:"
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Bob's Links and Rants: Syriana

"The film deals with foreign oil and corruption, and has its own activist web site. Aside from the trailer, I can't find out much more about the movie. It sounds interesting.

I recently watched Clooney's Three Kings again, a magnificent movie highlighting the stupidity and hypocrisy of the Gulf War and its aftermath."
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AlterNet: Labor Plays Hardball

"The AFL-CIO will either support their affiliates working locally with Change To Win affiliates - or not. He sees the Change To Win federation as having opened up the potential for that national labor movement to grow and flourish. He wants to bring another delegation of local labor leaders to meet with the AFL-CIO executive board to persuade them to allow AFL-CIO unions to work with Change To Win unions on the local level without penalty.

'If [they] don't do it, then clearly central labor council leaders and state federation leaders are pushed to be creative around how they restructure and refinance,' he says. 'That's a lot of unnecessary energy in my opinion. I'd rather focus those hours and those creative brainstorming sessions on how we organize the unorganized.'"

Not sure if this is hardball...
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Trenches - Journal - CA's Prop 75

"Ah-nud and his corporate backers have sponsored a proposition on the ballot of the upcoming special election aimed directly at Labor. Prop 75 would force unions to hold votes every time they wanted to spend money on political campaigns or advertising when corporations would be under no such restrictions to do the same with stockholders. It’s a clear attempt to weaken unions in one of the last states where they have real clout."
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unbossed.com � Higher Education is a Class Issue

"The far right has benefited by undermining public education. The left can benefit by supporting the fruits of an educated citizenry."
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mousemusings

"In the WaPo article titled 'A Capitol Hill Presence in the Blogosphere', it states, Only one lawmaker, Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.), allows readers to post comments on his site.
In fact, it doesn't even mention that John Conyers has a blog, a very active blog, that includes an RSS feed AND comments. I wonder why that is?"
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Eyeteeth: A journal of incisive ideas.: Cheney's Halliburton stocks soar: $250k turned into $8 mil in a year.


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Poll: Americans Favor Bush's Impeachment If He Lied about Iraq | Democrats.com

"Poll: Americans Favor Bush's Impeachment If He Lied about Iraq"

via cyndy
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Women workers more pro-union :: ILCA Online :: Making Labor Media a Force to Be Reckoned With

"Female workers respond to different issues and in different ways from men and are far more committed to the union cause oncee they sign on, a new report says. But they take longer to sign on than men. The report, from a forum of 19 top female organizers hosted by The Newspaper Guild/CWA’s Berger-Marks Foundation, says organizers view their biggest obstacles as the low status and little support unions give organizing, lack of time for families, and that unions still do not realize organizing women differs from organizing men."
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www.GovExec.com - Whistleblowers meet to share stories, plot strategies (10/11/05)

"More than two dozen national security whistleblowers, lawyers and public interest advocates gathered Monday night in a pristine fishing village on Virginia's eastern shore to discuss strategies for strengthening legal protections against reprisal and to exchange stories."
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United Underground Railroad's Message Board

"The Bush administration is spending about $7 billion a month to wage the war on terror, and costs could total $570 billion by the end of 2010, assuming troops are gradually brought home, a congressional report estimates."
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25 unpatched flaws in Internet Explorer

"According to this overview by Secunia, Microsoft's Internet Explorer has 25 unpatched security holes. Firefox is doing better, but isn't perfect, with 3 unpatched vulnerabilities."
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A Five-Point Roadmap to Podcasting's Future (I Love Radio .org)

"Podcasting has burst into the net consciousness at a pace that has stunned even the most seasoned Internet veterans. Dozens of new podcasts and tools are being released daily. But when technology moves at this pace, it tends to scatter its focus. What I propose below are the key next steps in the evolution -- a five-point road map to the future of podcasting."
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rollingearth.org — Matt Noyes: Popular Education for Union Democracy

"This book is still very much a draft, but it seems worth posting as I work on it. I am posting chapters out of order. The first bit is from Chapter 8, and includes an intro to that chapter and one of three activities. Comments, questions, and ideas are welcome."
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Link fest @ The labor blogging week that was | The Bellman, while I repost the content here:

"This week's featured post is from Future of the Union. The post I've chosen is just one of a number of important entries they've put up over the last week. I picked it because I've sometimes struggled to figure out what they were up to over there, and this post reads like a manifesto for their site.

Todd M. Jordan wrote:
Future of the Union started in August 2004 soon after the United Auto Workers leaders bargained for two-tier wages for the rank-n-file members. Its sole purpose is not just to educate and inform rank-n-file auto workers about their union activities, but a means to build real solidarity at the bottom. There are thousands of workers across the country represented by the UAW that would not normally have access to the resources and communication that Future of the Union provides. We are not simply just a resource and news center though. We are a movement for serious and immediate change in our union. We often expose and take a hard line stance on the decisions that our leadership make. |link|
Some other recent posts from the site:

* The Last Labor Stronghold
* Staggering Blow to the UAW
* Delphi Bankruptcy, a union without a levy
* Timeline of Delphi's decline

Elsewhere:

* First up, because I misfiled the link last week, is And your little dog too with a great post about the history of race baiting under capitalism.
* There's a growing unionization movement among religious workers around the world. Oread Daily has the details.
* Kevin Drum takes a sympathetic look at Thomas Geoghegan's argument that the U.S. has so many lawsuits partly because it has weak unions and inadequate corporate regulations.
* Bush's guest worker program catches the eye of Latina Lista, who has a better idea: Follow the blueprint provided by the AFL-CIO's Farm Labor Organizing Committee instead.
* Jordan Barab has the skinny on Harriet Miers' union busting past.
* At Unbossed, Shirah has some hard questions for the Change to Win coalition but isn't getting any answers.
* Tim Nesbitt, blogging for Oregon AFL-CIO, takes a more optimistic attitude and continues to look for common ground.
* Blogging from the future, Your Political Friend deconstructs the rationale for California's Prop 75.
* At House of Labor, Nathan Newman cites Joss Whedon's $50 million budget for Serenity to show 'why union labor beats out non-union labor in many cases.'
* The AFL-CIO has tried to recoup some of the dues lost through the split by raising the per caps paid by Central Labor Councils. Jonathan Tasini has his eye on the books.
* At NET-Workers, Misha takes a look at an attempt to unionize Wal-Mart in Korea.
* Parker, of These Imposible Days, reports that Wal-Mart workers are taking a different approach in Florida.
* Andy Stern spoke to a group of employees from San Jose State University on Friday night. Steve Sloan blogged it.
* Speaking of Andy Stern, he showed up at The Huffington Post this week to promote SEIU's Since Sliced Bread contest.
* And speaking of SEIU, Sutter Strikers Blog continues to provide picketting reports.
* There's a not very encouraging account of a new employee's first union meeting posted at Aghast from the Past.
* The recently ended CBC lockout is still getting a lot of attention. Rob Cottingham has a provocative post-mortem, writing that 'we may well recognize this as the very first Web 2.0 labour communications campaign.' More concretely and less enthusiastically, Eric Eggerston takes note of CBC's demand that strike-bloggers take down anti-CBC content now that the lockout has ended.
* Elsewhere in Canada, a massive teacher's strike began last week in British Columbia. Endsville Flask and Another Green World are the tip of the strike blogging iceberg.
* Back in the U.S., a significant teacher strike may have been averted in NYC. A tentative agreement has been reached between UFT and the city, but some teachers -- ably represented in the labor blogosphere by the likes of reality-based educator, Jane Young, and Random Ramblings -- don't think the proposed contract is up to snuff. Edwize, the semi-official blog of UFT, is making the case for ratification.
* Lastly, rollingearth.org is a new blog that Matt Noyes is using to write, publish, and revise a book: Popular Education for Union Democracy."
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Mark Maynard - attacking suvs

"...apparently there’s a group of French activists known as “The Deflated” who have been waging war on SUVs in Paris. Here’s a clip from the LA Times (via One Good Move):

…But five weeks after the clandestine crew of environmentalists launched a low-intensity war on SUVs in Paris, there are no casualties to report. Except, of course, for dozens of deflated gas-guzzling vehicles, said Sous-Adjudant Marrant (Sub-Warrant Officer Joker), the mysterious, masked leader of Les Degonfles.

Under cover of night, Marrant's troops target Jeep Cherokees, Porsche Cayennes and other four-wheel-drive vehicles parked on the tree-lined avenues and cobblestoned lanes of wealthy neighborhoods. The eco-guerrillas deflate tires without damaging them, smear doors with mud and paste handbills on windshields proclaiming that the vehicles are dangerous, polluting behemoths that do not belong in the city."
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Cursor.org: Media Patrol

"Lewis Lapham postulates an America in which 'people trained to the corporate style ... have no further use for free speech,' and where the corporate media's 'willingness to stay on message is a credit to their professionalism.'"
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Donald Rumsfeld is giving the president his daily briefing. He concludes by saying: "Yesterday, 3 Brazilian soldiers were killed."

"OH NO!" the President exclaims. "That's terrible!"

His staff sits stunned at this display of emotion, nervously watching as the President sits, head in hands.

Finally, the President looks up and asks, "How many is a brazillion?"
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reappropriate

"As if a thousand-plus people coloured people drowning weren't enough bad publicity, if you haven't heard the latest news out of New Orleans, take a look at this article (and the linked video clips). It seems that two state police officers and two federal officers took it upon themselves to beat the ever-lovin' shit out of an African American man who may have done nothing more than booze it up a bit too much in the reconstituted downtown New Orleans.

The video is hard to watch, but what is even more disturbing is how the officers involved in this brutal attack plead not guilty and are already citing the stress of Hurricane Katrina as part of their violent, senseless act of feral brutality. Here's the play by play if you're too lazy to watch the thirty-second ad before the video."
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Feministe : Just What I Need To Read During a Bout of Insomnia

"I’m dead:

'Scientists have long known that sleep disorders, such as sleep apnea, narcolepsy and chronic insomnia, can lead to serious health problems, and that difficulty sleeping may be a red flag for a serious illness. But the first clues that otherwise healthy people who do not get enough sleep or who shift their sleep schedules because of work, family or lifestyle may be endangering their health emerged from large epidemiological studies that found people who slept the least appeared to be significantly more likely to die.'

Wonderful."
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reappropriate

"This guy is like the grandfather of Asian American cyber-activism; any pseudo-politicized Asian American activist reads his blog semi-religiously at the very least. I don't know how many APIA bloggers look to AAM as their inspiration for entering into the blogosphere in the first place.

Not only is it great that one guy can make such a difference in the realm of Asian American activism and politics (proving that blogging isn't totally pointless) but it's nice that the mainstream media is moving more and more towards recognizing us Asians as intelligent, empowered, and angry."
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Sunday Bloody Sunday | media girl

"...we see Bono, poster boy of the left (and ever unhip wearer of tinted specs) striking a pose for....

...wait for it....

...Senator Rick Santorum.

Yes, the singer of the 'greatest rock n' roll band in the world' (sic) is doing a fundraiser for the biggest fucktard in Congress (sick)."
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CounterRecruiter: Florida School Punishes Students For Saying No To Military Recruiters

"In Florida's Duval County, school officials have made a bargain with parents: It's okay to opt your kids out of the military recruiter list, but if you do so, your teenager's photo will not appear in the yearbook, and she will not be listed in sports activities or on the honor roll. Where I come from, this practice is known as extortion, but I'm sure the Pentagon sees it as negotiation."
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God is for Suckers!: A what if question from our friend Dena

" 'So….we’re going to play a quick game of: “What IF.” What IF, the scripture in the Bible does come to pass; and all of what we have read in Revelations truly is fulfilled? I don’t doubt for a second that it all sounds completely insane; BUT…What IF?'

For my part, ignoring the fact that the many inconsistencies of the Bible make it logically impossible that it all be true, and playing along in relative seriousness, I hope I’d have the balls to go with something like this:

“OK, I was wrong. But I made the smartest and most rational choice available, and I tried to treat people with decency and compassion, and without irrational moralistic condemnation. Given that, if You (Big Invisible Daddy in the sky) decide to condemn me to eternal damnation for my choices, then that’s your choice, because you’re in driver’s seat. But if you do, you’re a small-minded, petty, vindictive asshole.”"
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Bush:Cheney copy.mov (video/quicktime Object)

Funny... scary
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United Underground Railroad's Message Board

"The AFL-CIO yesterday approved the return of the United Transportation Union to the federation, four years after its departure.

The 60,000-member union is the second labor group in two weeks to indicate it wants membership in the AFL-CIO. The California Nurses Association last month decided to ask the AFL-CIO for a charter and is petitioning for membership. "
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Racial Pro-File: Columbus Day

"This is one of those issues I don't understand the schism at all. Columbus' own diary explains his thinking and the atrocities he inflicted on the Native Americans. He did some courageous things, and he also killed millions of innocent people. That doesn't qualify for a day of national celebration in my book. If it does in yours, please explain--I'd love to hear."
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It's Matt's World

"As we continue the topic from last year of extremist views dominating and controlling our public discourse, I present to you now a new segment titled 'The Extreme Police.' They go around the country investigating matters of racism and homophobia, among other things. Of course, they never find any wrongdoing, as they're The Extreme Police, and thus operate under society's current standards that unless it's an extreme, it doesn't exist. Let's follow our detectives on a case..."
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Dems outsource fundraising to a union busting firm | The Bellman

"Via our ever more powerful labor weblog aggregator I see that the Democrats have been naughty. Yal has the details and suggests point and click activism. Sounds like a good start."
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Edwize : Professional Teacher Unionism: The Legacy Of Sandy Feldman

"In the last few days, my thoughts have often turned to Sandy Feldman, who recently passed away after a long and difficult struggle with breast cancer. As most readers know, Sandy was a past president of both the UFT and our national union, the American Federation of Teachers. But she was also a special person for me. Sandy was the person who initially convinced me that I could best pursue my goals as an educational activist, that I could best achieve my efforts to ensure that my students would have a chance to build lives of meaning and purpose, from within the UFT. She knew the power of collective, democratic voice for teachers, and she knew that such organized power could be used to great effect for our students, especially those with the greatest needs, as well as for ourselves.

Sandy and I met in strained circumstances, but we nonetheless quickly bonded. We shared a great deal in common, including love of political ideas and a passion for intellectual debate, as well as a background in the democratic socialist left and in the civil rights movement. I could call Sandy a mentor, but it would be an inadequate description, because in many ways, she felt like an older sister or a second mother. I never finished a conversation with her, including our last one in late spring, without feeling that she cared deeply about me and my welfare, as much as she was interested in the project on which I sought her opinion or the paper I wanted to discuss with her."

as opposed to this vision, is it really that dialectic?

Labor Notes - Choose Your Label ... Worker or Professional?

"Today, as in the past, unions are essential forms of organization that must represent the interests of working people. When a union places undue emphasis on the professionalism of teachers, it is getting away from the class position of teachers as workers, undermining the militancy of its members, and separating their members from their communities. Historically, professionalism has been used to divide us from other education workers (paraprofessionals, secretaries, counselors, vocational educators) and all of labor, when, in fact, we are all in the same boat."

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The Tea Makers: About this web site

"My last 2 months of being locked in at the CBC have been surreal, to say the least. Part of it was my own fault for starting this blog, at times the only thing keeping me sane, and at times a booster shot of paranoia, fear, and doubt.

But I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

I’m still not sure what it all means. I’m not sure if I helped or harmed, if I was part of something substantial or just cheap entertainment. Part of me wants to keep going, and part of me wants to shut up. But all of me is tired.

Within hours you guys will be back inside. I think this is a good time for me to take a break, at least for the time being. I want my life back.

Maybe I’ll return, maybe not. Maybe my time is better spent trying to change things through my actual job, rather than by being a mystery gadfly.

I had to lie to a lot of people to keep this web site going. Quite a few of them are people I respect and admire. I caused them some real migraines and they wracked their brains trying to figure out what happened.

Sorry about that.

I want to thank everyone who took part in this spontaneous online conversation. Thanks for your honesty, and even for your dishonesty. I learned a lot from all of you.

I never expected anyone to read this web site. But when you came by the thousands I tried to step up and write something worth reading. It was way harder than I ever imagined it would be.

A lot of people are really curious about my identity, I know. They want to know what department I'm in, or where I fit into the food chain, if they have seen my face crossing the line, if I am made by a committee, or if I am even real. But if you read this all over again it’s obvious that I am real. I was always real, and all you ever got was me trying to tell it straight.

Because the truth is that I could be anybody.

That was the whole point."
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PARAMETERS, US Army War College Quarterly - Winter 2004-05

"This article demonstrates that the use of military force by the Bush Administration against the regime of Saddam Hussein does not meet the ethical criteria for “preemptive war” set forth in the classical Just War tradition. It considers ethical questions raised by the US-led attack against Iraq as part of the war against global terrorism and argues that the doctrine of preemptive war as applied in the case of Iraq fails crucial ethical tests."
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Undertow - Brian's Blog

"The effect [of corporate propaganda] has been, pretty much, to demolish civil society, to turn people into what is the ideal. And the ideal is very clear. The ideal is a completely fragmented, atomized society, where everyone is totally alone, doing nothing but trying to pursue created wants. They don't have any connection with anyone else. You don't see anyone else, you don't deal with anyone else, you're an atom of consumption. And you go to work at lower and lower wages for more and more hours and less and less benefits and security in a 'flexible' labor market. That's the kind of utopia that they're looking for. --Noam Chomsky, in 'Class War: The Attack On Working People', 1996"
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Some of Ian Fulcher's classes are looking at how much a reference source can say about the author who quotes from it. When discussing Wikipedia, he mentioned Jon Udell's "Heavy Metal Umlaut: the Movie."

It's also a good look at the emerging medium all the kids are calling "screencasting."
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Ambrosia Software, Inc. -- utilities/iseek

I am thinking about this mac app iSeek, I must have downloaded it a couple of months ago, used it a couple of times and then it dissppeared, I didn't rediscover it until recently and I used a "dummy" code to continue testing it, and I was redirected to this page. I think this is an interesting way to deal with real issues of "ownership" and kracking and such.
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Nothing is more true:
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Global Voices Online: Palestinian Bloggers Blog for a Purpose!

"Living under occupation Palestinian bloggers might be small in number but definitely big in mission and purpose. If you were Palestinian, fortunate enough to have Internet access and run a blog chances are every other entry is about the Palestinian-Israeli daily conflict.

Palestine Blogs will never forget innocent 12-year-old child Mohammed Al-Dura who was killed heartlessly by the Israeli militants. Falastine talks about how Israel continues to twist facts and invest international lies as usual. Fawaz Turki also remembers the heart-rending intensity of the broadcasted incident and says that according to the latest figures put out by the United Nations Childrens’ agency, UNICEF, 542 Palestinian children have been killed over the last five years.

On a happier occasion, Laila - a Palestinian blogger from Gaza- and her son, Yousuf have finally met with husband and father after a long tiring journey to the US. Laila says her flight was like staying at a 5-star hotel compared to Rafah Crossing. Laila has yet to recover from the difficulties she encountered, she adds: “Every now and then I hear a helicopter, innocuously monitoring traffic, and I duck for cover. I am still jittery and on edge”

umkahlil-Palestinian blogger who resides in Germany- talks about the non-violent regular Friday demonstration in Bilin which was not reported by the western press and during which seventeen Israeli activists were detained. Slingshots VS teargas canisters, who’s the winner?

In Bqaa Refugee Camp a school playground was sliced in 2 by the Israeli apartheid wall. Rafah Pundits said the new city to be built between Rafah and Khan Yunis will include some 3,000 housing units potentially making up much of the housing stock lost over the past four years and will be funded by the UAE.

Israeli Watch talks about PFLP Leadership Moving From Syria to Gaza and how Israelies are running scared!"
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theboxtank: Community Commits To Not Be Raving

"50 people gathered in a Ripon, CA living room to talk about getting organized to oppose a proposed Wal-Mart in their community. Highlights of the meeting:

“This isn’t a fight against Wal-Mart. It is a fight against superstores,”
“This is make us unite and more organized so we won’t do things over and over,”
“This will not be an easy fight,”
“When need to be careful of what we say and do so we don’t look like a raving community. We need to bring the facts to bring other people against it.”
“It is all on public record and the city is being very pleasant and helpful,”
“(Ripon) will become a group of houses with a Wal-Mart,”
“Wal-Mart is listening to everything that we are doing. The message we put out must be consistent.”"
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theboxtank: Wal-Mart Protects America From Free Speech

"Be careful what you bring to Wal-Mart's film processing department:

Jarvis had assigned her senior civics and economics class “to take photographs to illustrate their rights in the Bill of Rights,” she says. One student “had taken a photo of George Bush out of a magazine and tacked the picture to a wall with a red thumb tack through his head. Then he made a thumb’s down sign with his own hand next to the President’s picture, and he had a photo taken of that, and he pasted it on a poster.”

Wal-Mart Turns in Student’s Anti-Bush Photo, Secret Service Investigates Him"
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Bob's Links and Rants: Land of the no-longer free

"Americans may be unaware of what it means to be stripped of the protection of habeas corpus, or they may think police authorities would never make a mistake or ever use their unbridled power against the innocent. Americans might think that the police state will only use its powers against terrorists or 'enemy combatants'.

But 'terrorist' is an elastic and legally undefined category."
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Bob's Links and Rants: Quote of the year

"'Delphi said it made the change after determining its severance package for top executives wasn't competitive.' -- Detroit News

That's right--while threatening its workers with 63% pay cuts, and then filing for bankruptcy, auto supplier and major Michigan employer Delphi Corporation was busy making sure that its executives would be well taken care of as they were fired."
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Bob's Links and Rants

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Shameless Agitator: Liquid Art

AMAZING
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IUF:Settlement reached in Gate Gourmet dispute

"Although the number of sacked workers was quickly adjusted to 670 - once Gate Gourmet realised that amongst those sacked for 'engaging in illegal industrial action' were workers on holiday, sick and maternity leave - the outrageous facts of the matter remained unchanged and, as the sordid background to Gate Gourmet's actions was gradually revealed, the company's conduct came under increasing public attack and its reputation worsened steadily.

For months prior to the sackings, Gate Gourmet had been engaged in negotiations with the T&G over concessions on salaries and working conditions in order to secure the financial survival of its operations in the UK. Gate Gourmet was in fact under pressure from its parent company, the US-based investment firm, Texas Pacific Group (TPG), to improve its performance. As has been reported, TPG even devised a plan to achieve cost savings for Gate Gourmet and better returns for its investors - a plan which Gate Gourmet swears was never put in place nor even seriously considered, but which bears an uncanny resemblance to what actually happened: workers were provoked into staging a walk-out which was used as a pretext for mass dismissals and the flying-in of replacement workers from outside the UK, workers who had been recruited through a labour-hire agency Gate Gourmet had earlier set up for the purpose. "
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Summer of Love 2004

"James Southern of Trinity College wrote:
SDS was founded in 1959 as a branch of the League for Industrial Democracy based in Ann Arbor Michigan. In 1962, a convention composed of 59 members from cities all over the East Coast and mid west met in Port Huron Michigan. The convention was led by the president of the organization, Robert Allen (ed. note Alan) Haber, who, along with Tom Hayden, drafted the Port Huron Statement, a document that set forth the ideals and intentions of the SDS.
In 1962 the SDS was primarily a civil rights movement that addressed American issues such as poverty, racism, the arms race, and the narrow limits of participation and social change that were possible in electoral politics. Throughout the members of SDS believed that they were part of a revolution. Labeled as ‘democratic utopians,’ they held very close to them a vision new democracy in America. The ultimate aspirations of the SDS were to replace power derived from possession, privilege, and circumstance, with power rooted in love, reflectiveness, reason, and creativity. This philosophy is outlined in detail in the Port Huron Statement.
As the war escalated, so did active participation in SDS. By 1968, SDS could count on 135,000 supporters from over 400 chapters nationwide. Mass participation led to mass demonstrations, which occurred in schools as well as in the streets. The largest student led revolt held at a school was the takeover of Columbia University in 1967. Students caught wind that Columbia was one of the chief universities for the IDA, (Institute of Defense Analysis). Columbia was among a group of universities that supplied the pentagon with vital military research, and thus was a direct contributor to Industrial Liberalism, which the Left detested. Sit-ins, marches, and picketing were other forms of mass protest carried out by the SDS that stirred up an abundance of revolutionary sentiment on campuses nationwide. Until 1968, the vast majority of these protests were peaceful, however, the turbulence of events in 1968 escalated many demonstrations into acts of violence.
The downfall of SDS (in 1968) was that 'it lacked a policy that linked immediate action to revolutionary strategy.' Furthermore, 'the left was still not strong enough to build any lasting political framework without a coalition with the peace forces, and particularly the left-liberal wing of the Democratic Party.' As the SDS began to fictionalize and breakdown, many groups ended up resulting to violence and chaos, which only resulted in disaster."
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Leslie Hill & Helen Paris :: Guerilla Performance Locator:: Guerilla Performance Locator

"Long before Karen Finley smeared chocolate on her bottom, Annie Sprinkle showed us her cervix or Orlan began her course of reconstructive cosmetic surgery, comely Edwardian ladies were pioneering a new hybrid art form in which the personal was political. "
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Democratizing Education Convention

"We write to you as members of an emerging network of campus organizers who believe that it is time to better coordinate our energy and organizing efforts to fight for an accessible, diverse and fair public higher education system. "

UM student Brian Lutenegger, an Urban & Regional Planning Student, will hopefully be there. Brian Lutenegger
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laura the tooth: tentative optimism

"so i figured it all out--the permanents hire temps to do all the work they're too lazy to do. once the work is done, they'll make up a reason to 'terminate' the temp contract so the hardworking temps can't stay and threaten their jobs by making them look bad. temps are basically the highly paid disposable 'clean up crew' to be thrown aside whenever the permanents finally catch up with their work. "
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