Wisconsin Democrats Plan Capitulation
by Stephen Lendman
Three weeks and counting since Wisconsin public workers began heroically protesting for rights too important to lose, including collective bargaining without which all others are threatened.
Daily, many thousands braved cold and snow - marching, demonstrating, and sleeping over, sacrificing personal comforts to keep struggling for justice. Teachers, police, firefighters, nurses, maintenance workers, and other public employees were joined by union and nonunion private sector ones, along with doctors, lawyers, other professionals, and thousands of college and high school students from across Wisconsin and other states.
Three weeks and counting since Wisconsin public workers began heroically protesting for rights too important to lose, including collective bargaining without which all others are threatened.
Daily, many thousands braved cold and snow - marching, demonstrating, and sleeping over, sacrificing personal comforts to keep struggling for justice. Teachers, police, firefighters, nurses, maintenance workers, and other public employees were joined by union and nonunion private sector ones, along with doctors, lawyers, other professionals, and thousands of college and high school students from across Wisconsin and other states.
News
03/08/11
U.S. sets $223B deficit record Dwarfs Hill’s cutting goals
The federal government posted its largest monthly deficit in history in February, a $223 billion shortfall that put a sharp point on the current fight on Capitol Hill about how deeply to cut this year’s spending.
Video shows Libya army 'executions'
Opposition video said to show Gaddafi soldiers killed for refusing to fire on rebel targets west of the capital Tripoli. Al Jazeera has received pictures that purportedly show Libyan army officers killed for refusing to fire on the rebels, evidence of how Gaddafi deals with "traitors". It is claimed the soldiers refused to shoot rebels in the mountainous region west of the capital, Tripoli. The pictures were sent to Al Jazeera by a rebel group in the area. A survivor of the killings says the men were rounded-up, their legs tied before being shot in the head or back from close range. It is impossible to independently verify the authenticity of the video.
US to resume Guantanamo trials - Video
US president lifts two-year ban on controversial military tribunals as he acknowledges the prison will not close soon. The US president has approved the resumption of military trials for detainees at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility in Cuba. The move ends a two-year ban and was the latest acknowledgment that the prison Barack Obama had vowed to shut down within a year of taking office will remain open for some time to come.
03/07/11
How the Swedes Set Up Julian Assange
The British magistrate court has decided to surrender Julian Assange to the Nordic Amazons who were hunting for his head – pending appeal. Thus the long Saga of the Broken Condom, or whatever name by which it will become known to posterity, took a definite turn for the worse. The judge decided to honor the European Arrest Warrant issued by man-eating Swedish prosecutor Marianne Ny. Julian has appealed to the High Court, ensuring that the saga will go on as a side divertissement to the main story, Cablegate.
Arab World Protests Could Reignite Anti-Nuke Campaign
The global civil society campaign for the abolition of nuclear weapons could be politically reignited by the phenomenal successes of the grassroots demonstrations in Egypt and Tunisia, shadowed closely by Libya, Bahrain, Yemen and Jordan.
More Jobs Mirage In February—BLS Continues To Overestimate Job Growth
The announcement on March 4 that 192,000 new jobs were created in February was greeted with a sigh of relief. But the number is just more smoke and mirrors, as I will show shortly. First, let’s pretend the jobs are real. What areas of the economy produced the jobs?
Battle for Libya intensifies - Video
Anti-government forces repulse ferocious assault by Gaddafi loyalists as fighting spreads across the coastline. Al Jazeera's Jacky Rowland reports from Ras Lanuf where rebels have successfully resisted a government attack Forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi, the long time Libyan leader, have attacked several rebel-held cities along the country's coastline, in a bid to halt the anti-government forces' rapid advance to the capital Tripoli. But on Sunday, the rebels have repulsed the ferocious assaults, which left dozens dead, as the conflict escalates dramatically.
03/06/11
People Of Earth: Prepare For Economic Disaster
It is not just the United States that is headed for an economic collapse. The truth is that the entire world is heading for a massive economic meltdown and the people of earth need to be warned about the coming economic disaster that is going to sweep the globe. The current world financial system is based on debt, and there are alarming signs that the gigantic global debt bubble is getting ready to burst. In addition, global prices for the key resources that the major economies of the planet depend on are rising very rapidly. Despite all of our advanced technology, the truth is that human civilization simply cannot function without oil and food.
TSA, DHS plan massive mobile surveillance rollout
Newly-released documents obtained by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) reveal that the US Depart of Homeland Security has been working on plans to roll out a new wave of mobile surveillance technologies at train stations, stadiums and streets. These new technologies will track your eye movements, capture and record your facial dimensions for face-recognition processing, bathe you in X-rays to look under your clothes, and even image your naked body using whole-body infrared images that were banned from consumer video cameras because they allowed the camera owners to take “nude” videos of people at the beach.
$1.2 Trillion Spent on the Military While the Rest of Us Fight Over Crumbs
So after all that cash is gone, what are we left with? Not a whole heck of a lot for the rest of us. There’s been a joke going around the labor protests. It goes something like this: A union member, a CEO and a Tea Party member are sitting at a table with 12 cookies. The CEO grabs 11, turns to the Tea Partier and says “The Union’s out to take your cookie!”
Shooting Children, One After Another, The Incalcuable Cost of War
U.S. people, if they do read or hear of it, may be shocked at the apparent unconcern of the crews of two U.S. helicopter gunships, which attacked and killed nine children on a mountainside in Afghanistan's Kumar province, shooting them "one after another" this past Tuesday March 1st. ("The helicopters hovered over us, scanned us and we saw a green flash from the helicopters. Then they flew back high up, and in a second round they hovered over us and started shooting." (NYT 3/2/11)).
Why Employee Pensions Aren't Bankrupting States
From state legislatures to Congress to tea party rallies, a vocal backlash is rising against what are perceived as too-generous retirement benefits for state and local government workers. However, that widespread perception doesn't match reality. Protesters rally against a budget bill outside the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus. (AFP/Getty Images/File/J.D. Pooley) A close look at state and local pension plans across the nation, and a comparison of them to those in the private sector, reveals a more complicated story. However, the short answer is that there's simply no evidence that state pensions are the current burden to public finances that their critics claim.
'SAS unit' captured in Libya
According to Guardian sources, a suspected British intelligence and special forces unit, which arrived by helicopter about four days ago, was caught near the town of Khadra, about 20 miles west of Benghazi.
Libya and the Danger of Humanitarian Intervention
Events are rapidly unfolding in Libya and the surrounding region, and military intervention appears to be an increasing reality as the hours pass. One look at the principal Western nations deploying their military forces to the Mediterranean says a great deal: the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and France. Italy has also repudiated its friendship treaty with Libya, effectively freeing up Italy's military outposts for use in southern Libya. These are the same Western powers that intervened in Haiti, Kosovo and Afghanistan on ‘humanitarian’ grounds, and they appear to be rearing their ugly heads again under the same humanitarian pretext.
Geraldo: Charlie Sheen will Never Work in Television Again Because of His “Anti-Semitism”
After Charlie Sheen’s latest crazy outburst, and CBS canceling the rest of the season of his television show, Hollywood is buzzing about what this will mean for his career going forward.
Michael Moore: The Smug Wealthy Have Gone Too Far -- And We're Finally Fighting Back
By trying to destroy us corporate America has given birth to a movement -- a movement that is becoming a massive, nonviolent revolt across the country. America is not broke. Contrary to what those in power would like you to believe so that you'll give up your pension, cut your wages, and settle for the life your great-grandparents had, America is not broke. Not by a long shot. The country is awash in wealth and cash. It's just that it's not in your hands. It has been transferred, in the greatest heist in history, from the workers and consumers to the banks and the portfolios of the uber-rich.
03/05/11
BENGHAZI EXPLOSION – TACTICAL NUKE USE BY GADDAFI SUSPECTED
"GROUND ZERO" DEVASTATION. WERE “MICRO-NUKES” IN ISRAELI AID PACKAGE TO GADDAFI? a massive explosion that completely destroyed an area three times the size of a soccer field…..photographers who arrived at the site of the explosion Saturday saw entire buildings, cars and trees flattened and smoldering as a result of the blast” Associated Press
This Is What Complicity Looks Like: Palestine and the Silencing Campaign on Campus
The campaign to silence Palestine solidarity reaches its annual crescendo during Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW). As IAW 2011 approaches, we need to prepare for another round of silencing. This means assessing the silencing campaign and the experience of standing up for free expression over the last few years.
Will America Make The Right Choice In Libya?
The capture of a paranoid dictator was the pretext for the American invasion of Iraq; will history repeat itself in Libya? The revolutionary changes that are taking place in the Arab world now or what the west and the United States like to refer to as the Middle East have come about so suddenly it interrupted ongoing plans for the region which depended mainly on the believed to be stable and enduring political regimes that showed the so called moderation or in other words, conformity with the definition and views of the united states and Israel of the region.
How Politicians Are Using 911 Emergency Services to Scam Millions of Consumers
Raiding 911 funds is an easy way for politicians to scoop up loose cash -- far easier than taxing the rich. The Great Blizzard of 2010 dumped record levels of snow throughout the Northeast. On day one of the snowstorm, New York's 911 service got nearly 50,000 calls and, at its peak, had a backlog of 1,300 calls that almost brought the service to its knees. Sadly, the combination of 911 failures and the inability of EMS ambulances to get through the snowdrifts likely contributed to a number of needless deaths.
Public Employee Unions Don't Get One Penny from Taxpayers and Can't Require Membership, But the Big Lie That They Do Is Everywhere
Nobody has to belong to a union or support its political activities, but you'd never know that from reading the news. Let us begin with this simple, indisputable truth: public employees' unions don't get a single red cent from taxpayers. And they aren't a mechanism to “force” working people to support Democrats – that's completely illegal.
Food supply worries in Libya - Video
In a country 90 per cent of the food is imported, violence has sent prices skyrocketing. The UN recently announced that global food prices have hit an all-time high, and nowhere is this more evident than in Libya, a country that depends on imports for more than 90 per cent of its food.
03/04/11
LIBYA’S MONEY MACHINE KEEPING GADDAFI ALIVE
ZAWIYA FALLS TO GADDAFI IN TODAY'S LIBYAN BLOODBATH, FRIENDS IN WASHINGTON, LONDON AND TEL AVIV PARALYZE THE WEST. “Israel is flooding Libya with mercenaries, Gaddafi is slaughtering his own people and the rebel leaders who have called for help from America are being ignored while Gaddafi is consolidating for a full scale civil war which could easily have ended a week ago.” This is the scenario being played out in Libya. Gaddafi will be allowed to survive, weakened and muted, facing “elimination” at any time for “war crimes” now being carefully documented. He will have to pay out billions to keep his business running, if, if he lasts.
World's sixth mass extinction may be underway: study
Mankind may have unleashed the sixth known mass extinction in Earth's history, according to a paper released by the science journal Nature. Over the past 540 million years, five mega-wipeouts of species have occurred through naturally-induced events. But the new threat is man-made, inflicted by habitation loss, over-hunting, over-fishing, the spread of germs and viruses and introduced species, and by climate change caused by fossil-fuel greenhouse gases, says the study.
15 March Palestine: End of Division
Large numbers are ready to hit the streets in Gaza, Ramallah, Israel, and the world; ready to explode into a strong and rational demand for the “End of Division” i.e. the end of the division between Fatah and Hamas. (GAZA CITY) - The mighty flow of blood and hope from Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain, Algeria and Libya has also washed over young Palestinian minds in Gaza. What started as a stream has become a torrent and will soon spill it banks. Palestine's 25 January will be 15 March.
Environmentalist Tim DeChristopher Found Guilty of Sabotaging Oil and Gas Auction; Faces up to 10 Years in Jail
A federal jury in Salt Lake City has convicted environmental activist Tim DeChristopher of two felony counts for disrupting the auction of more than 100,000 acres of federal land for oil and gas drilling. DeChristopher was charged in December 2008 with infiltrating a public auction and disrupting the Bush administration’s last-minute move to auction off oil and gas exploitation rights on vast swaths of federal land.
Hillary Clinton: "We're Losing the War"
None other than the US Secretary of State herself, Hillary Clinton, paid fulsome tribute to Al Jazeera last Wednesday, March 2. Appearing before a US Foreign Policy Priorities committee, she was asked by Senator Richard Lugar to impart her views on how well the US was promoting its message across the world.
The Cost of US Terrorism in Afghanistan: Incalculable
Recent polls suggest that while a majority of U.S. people disapprove of the war in Afghanistan, many on grounds of its horrible economic cost, only 3% took the war into account when voting in the 2010 midterm elections. The issue of the economy weighed heavily on voters, but the war and its cost, though clear to them and clearly related to the economy in their thinking, was a far less pressing concern.
Republicans Attack Obama's Environmental Protection From All Sides
Environmental protection in US under attack from extremist Tea Partiers backed by big business. It started on a sultry day in Houston when hundreds of protesters, mostly oil company employees, were bussed to a concert hall in their lunch hour to rally against a historic first step by Congress to reduce the pollution that causes climate change.
The Moral Underground: How Ordinary Americans Subvert an Unfair Economy
Sociologist Lisa Dodson investigates the growing grassroots movement against unethical standards within the workplace. On the surface, the people I met who practiced economic disobedience would seem quite diverse. They included middle-aged, white Bea, managing that big-box store in rural New England and thinking that after years of hard work, you should be able to buy a prom dress for your daughter. They included Ned, white and in his thirties, the chain grocery store manager who thought working families should have enough to eat. And also Ray, in his fifties and the son of immigrants, a community-center director for a small city, who doesn’t ask for a “pedigree” before signing people up for desperately needed services. They included Aida, a Latina in her thirties, the director of a child care center, who misplaced paperwork so that children wouldn’t lose child care and parents wouldn’t lose jobs. And they included urban teacher Lenora, in her twenties and African American, who broke school rules all the time to help out a student in her class. The Moral Underground: How Ordinary Americans Subvert an Unfair Economy
States Rebeling Against TSA: Texas The Latest To Legislate For Banning Grope-Downs, Naked Scanners
Tenth Amendment allows for local governments to regulate airports. Legislation has been introduced into the Texas House of Representatives that directly challenges the authority of the TSA in airports within the state, specifically aimed at criminalizing the use of naked body scanners and enhanced pat-downs.
Frankfurt suspect's 'gun jammed'
A German prosecutor has said that the man suspected of killing two US Air Force members could have killed more people if his gun had not jammed. Arid Uka, the 21-year-old suspect, has been charged with two counts of murder, and three counts of attempted murder after the shooting at Frankfurt airport on Wednesday.
03/03/11
ISRAEL INTERVENES IN LIBYA…FOR GADDAFI!
MARINES ON THE USS KEARSARGE AWAIT ORDERS. 50,000 MERCENARIES TO BE DEPLOYED AGAINST REBELS
Al Qaeda Fighters Included in Israeli Force. In a move that surprises all but Middle East experts, Israel has promised Libya’s dictator of over 40 years, Colonel Gaddafi, 50,000 troops to aid in crushing rebels set on overthrowing his his murderous rule. According to news sources inside Israel, “troops” are being hired across Africa, Uganda, Sudan, Chad and the Central Africa Republic, including Al Qaeda fighters, to be deployed against demonstrators and rebel forces currently involved in heavy fighting in a two week old attempt to overthrow the Libyan ruler that has left thousands dead.
Al Qaeda Fighters Included in Israeli Force. In a move that surprises all but Middle East experts, Israel has promised Libya’s dictator of over 40 years, Colonel Gaddafi, 50,000 troops to aid in crushing rebels set on overthrowing his his murderous rule. According to news sources inside Israel, “troops” are being hired across Africa, Uganda, Sudan, Chad and the Central Africa Republic, including Al Qaeda fighters, to be deployed against demonstrators and rebel forces currently involved in heavy fighting in a two week old attempt to overthrow the Libyan ruler that has left thousands dead.
Chávez proposes 'committee of peace' to mediate between west and Gaddafi
Venezuela ready to set up coalition of nations sympathetic to Libya to arbitrate, as Caracas claims US wants to invade. President Hugo Chávez has spoken with Muammar Gaddafi about creating a bloc of friendly countries to help mediate a resolution to Libya's crisis, Venezuela's information minister has said.
Assange appeals against extradition
Lawyers for WikiLeaks founder lodge appeal against order for extradition to Sweden, where he is accused of sex crimes. Assange faces questioning in Sweden over claims of sexual misconduct made by two women he met during a visit to Sweden last August. The website founder denies wrongdoing and says he had consensual sex with the two women. His lawyers have argued that Assange, if extradited to Sweden, risks being handed over to the United States where they say he could face imprisonment or the death penalty.
We can't get Bush and Cheney extradited for war crimes and mass murder, but we can extradite Assange for having sex. Ultimately the goal is to torture and brutalize him in an American prison for daring to stand up to the despots who rule over us. They want to teach the world a lesson: This is what happens to little people who speak to loudly and with too much truth.
We can't get Bush and Cheney extradited for war crimes and mass murder, but we can extradite Assange for having sex. Ultimately the goal is to torture and brutalize him in an American prison for daring to stand up to the despots who rule over us. They want to teach the world a lesson: This is what happens to little people who speak to loudly and with too much truth.
Military Coups are Good for Canadian Business: The Canada-Honduras Free Trade Agreement
Last week Canadian negotiators met with their Honduran counterparts in Tegucigalpa to discuss a free trade agreement (FTA). Negotiators from the two countries last met in Ottawa in December. According to the Honduran press, an agreement is close to being completed. This marks an alarming development in the efforts of the Canadian state and multinational corporations to deepen their relations with Honduras following the military coup of June 28, 2009.
TX: Corpus Christi TSA workers double-up on pat-downs
OKLAHOMA CITY – The men and women in the ill-fitting blue shirts and tight black pants are running wild once again down at the main airport in the South Texas city of Corpus Christi. A regular reader of Red Dirt Report contacted this website and shared her story of how she and her husband’s Fourth Amendment rights were violated by the Transportation Security Administration earlier this week while trying to board a Southwest plane flying from Corpus Christi International Airport to St. Louis, Missouri.
03/02/11
Saudi Arabia contagion triggers Gulf rout
Fears of sectarian uprisings in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia have set off the first serious wave of investor flight from the Gulf, compounding market turmoil as civil war in Libya pushes Brent crude over $116 a barrel.
An Unprecedented Attack from Polluters
The House has passed a devastating budget plan that would destroy bedrock safeguards that have protected our health and environment for decades. As a new mother, it breaks my heart when I hear stories from parents who are struggling with their kids' health problems. I know parents who live in fear of their child's next asthma attack. Some can't even let their kids play outside when local air pollution hits dangerous levels. We do everything we can to protect our kids, even before they're born.
How the Rich Soaked the Rest of Us
The astonishing story of the last few decades is a massive redistribution of wealth, as the rich have shifted the tax burden. Over the last half century, the richest Americans have shifted the burden of the federal individual income tax off themselves and onto everybody else. The three convenient and accurate Wikipedia graphs below show the details. The first graph compares the official tax rates paid by the top and bottom income earners. Note especially that from the end of the second world war into the early 1960s, the highest income earners paid a tax rate over 90% for many years. Today, the top earners pay a rate of only 35%. Note also how the gap between the rates paid by the richest and the poorest has narrowed. If we take into account the many loopholes the rich can and do use far more than the poor, the gap narrows even more.
Past News
03/02/11
The Silver Bullet And The Silver Shield
02/26/11
Arms Trafficking, Stolen Missiles, Soviet Submarines, Nuclear Detonations and 9/11
02/01/11
The New World Order Feudal Enslavement System
01/22/11
GRAINS-US soybeans, wheat at fresh 2-1/2 yr highs on supply worries
01/17/11
US Mint Reports Unprecedented Buying Spree Of Physical Silver
01/14/11
WAR on We The People: The Gulf Oil Attack by The Rothschild League of Investment Bankers - the GUlf oil disaster is WAR on we the people
01/05/11
US Troops Execute 10 Afghan Children
01/02/11
16 Nightmarish Economic Trends To Watch Carefully In 2011
Videos
03/07/11
'America Is NOT Broke': Michael Moore Speaks in Madison, WI -- March 5, 2011
Tens of Thousands Cheer Michael Moore in Madison: 'You Have Aroused a Sleeping Giant, Known as the Working People' Filmmaker Michael Moore marched with members of Madison Firefighters Local 311 to the Wisconsin Capitol Saturday and delivered a old-school progressive populist address is which he told a crowd numbering in the tens of thousands that “Wisconsin is not broke. America is not broke.” “The country is awash in wealth and cash. It’s just not in your hands,” he told the Wisconsinites who rallied to challenge the claim that the state needs to strip public employees and their teachers of collective bargaining rights in order to balance budgets. http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/03/06
