This video from the USA is called EXPOSED: Media ignore Pentagon Pundits scandal.
There is a new animation by Mark Fiore on the internet.
It is called General Happy Swellspin.
It is about war propaganda in the media in the USA; see also here.
The animation is here.
Dear Kitty. Some blog 
Hi Kitty, Somewhat off the subject. I will be attending the ILWU rally against the Iraq war. Taking time off from work to head over there in the middle of the day. Last year I told you that I was in Santa Rosa to see the May Day march of over 10,000 mostly immigrant workers. I’m told that the Santa Rosa march is expected to be just as big again this year. I’m very excited about both of these actions.
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Hi Jon, all my best wishes to you, and to both events.
In New York City today, there is also a May Day event for immigrant workers, against the Iraq war, etc. See here.
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http://www.sfbayview.com/News/Bay_Area/May_Day_Longshore_workers_will_shut_down_West_Coast_ports_to_stop_the_war.html
May Day: Longshore workers will shut down West Coast ports to stop the war
by: Jonathan Nack
Wednesday, 23 April 2008
Image
From left, Jack Heyman, Clarence Thomas, Jack Chernos and Jessica Sanchez at an organizing meeting for the May Day action.
Oakland — An unprecedented job action scheduled for May 1 could shake the West and reverberate across the country. Longshore workers will shut down every port on the West Coast for the day shift in protest against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Never before in U.S. history has any union stopped work over a war.
The decision to down tools for eight hours was made by the longshore division of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU). The union has also issued a nationwide call to action for other unions and workers to take anti-war actions on May 1. They call for the day to be a “no peace, no work” holiday.
A march in San Francisco will begin at 10:30 a.m. at the Longshore Union Hall at Mason and Beach streets. The rally will be at Justin Herman Plaza at noon. Speakers will include Cynthia McKinney, Danny Glover and Cindy Sheehan.
The ILWU, particularly Local 10 of the Bay Area, has historically led on social issues. In 1978, they refused to load bombs bound for Pinochet’s dictatorship in Chile; in 1984, they refused to move cargo to protest against Apartheid in South Africa; and in 2001, they closed Pacific ports to protest the World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle. This will be the first time, however, that they’ve closed the ports to protest war.
In an editorial published by The San Francisco Chronicle, Jack Heyman, an Executive Board member of ILWU Local 10, wrote that at the meeting of the union’s Coast Caucus, “the union’s Vietnam veterans turned the tide of opinion in favor of the anti-war resolution. The motion called it an imperial action for oil in which the lives of working-class youth and Iraqi civilians were being wasted.”
The decision to take action on May 1 was deliberate. “In 2004, Local 10 launched the Million Worker Movement, and one of the things that came out of that was the need to reclaim May Day,” according to Clarence Thomas, another Executive Board member of ILWU Local 10. “May Day is celebrated throughout the world on May 1, but it grew out of the struggle for the eight-hour day in America. It’s no accident that we picked May Day to stop work at the ports,” explained Thomas.
The Port Workers Organizing Committee, which is organizing a march and rally in San Francisco in conjunction with the ILWU’s job action, has incorporated support for immigrant rights into their themes. A number of immigrant rights activists are involved in the organizing and the day’s events are scheduled so as not to conflict with immigrant rights marches and rallies which will be held later in the day in both San Francisco and Oakland.
“We believe labor should be united with the immigrant rights movement,” said Jessica Sanchez of the Coalition for Unconditional Amnesty and International Workers. “We want to end the wars at home and abroad. We think globalization is the reason why there are so many undocumented workers. Undocumented workers are among the most exploited, and amnesty for them is in the interests of the U.S. working class,” concluded Sanchez.
The response by other unions to the call to action has been modest. Letter carriers in San Francisco and Greensboro, N. C., as well as postal workers in San Francisco and New York City will observe two minutes of silence per shift on May 1. City College teachers in New York City decided to organize a campus event. Teachers in Oakland also agreed to mark the day.
The call to action has been endorsed by the Vermont AFL-CIO and by Green Party Presidential Candidate Cynthia McKinney. Both the San Francisco and Alameda County Central Labor Councils AFL-CIO have also endorsed.
“Every step and action we can take, whether strategic or not, helps to further the awareness needed to stop racism and end the incursion in Iraq,” said Tim Paulson, executive director of the San Francisco Central Labor Council.
For more information, visit http://maydayilwu.googlepages.com.
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http://www.presstelegram.com/breakingnews/ci_9105565
Dockworkers plan walkout over Iraq
WARS: Workers don’t have formal union support, but some are expected to skip jobs to protest actions in Iraq, Afghanistan.
By Art Marroquin, Staff Writer
Article Launched: 04/30/2008 06:41:51 AM PDT
West Coast dockworkers plan to walk off the job Thursday to protest the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, even though the action doesn’t have the formal support of their employers or the International Longshore and Warehouse Union.
It was unclear how successful the effort will be at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, where a group of longshore workers admitted uncertainty to how widely the plan was received by other dockworkers.
“There are lots of members who are expressing their personal views and committing to this voluntary action,” said Craig Merrilees, an ILWU spokesman.
ILWU executives had initially given their blessing to an eight-hour work stoppage during the busy day shift, which was suggested two months ago during a union caucus in San Francisco.
A clause in the union’s current contract allow workers to hold monthly “stop-work” meetings during the evening shift, when cargo activity is considered to be lighter.
The union withdrew its support shortly after the Pacific Maritime Association denied the union’s request for the walkout. An arbitrator ruled last week that the union had to inform its members about the change in plans.
As a result, any work stoppage held Thursday will be initiated by the union’s rank-and-file members, not by union executives, according to Merrilees.
“In light of those developments, we hope that May 1 will come and go without disruption,” said Steve Getzug, a spokesman for the PMA, which represents the West Coast’s shippers.
“We’re anticipating that May 1 is a regular work day,” he said.
Workers who choose to walk off the job Thursday might face some sort of discipline, but it was unclear what avenues the employers would pursue.
Immigration rights groups also plan to hold a series of marches and rallies in Los Angeles and cities across the country on Thursday to call for reforms in immigration policies.
Some port truck drivers and dockworkers have resisted signing up for the federal Transportation Workers Identification Credential because undocumented workers do not qualify for the high-tech security card.
art.marroquin@dailybreeze.com
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Arrest Bush
Posted by: “Jack” miscStonecutter@earthlink.net bongo_fury2004
Wed Apr 30, 2008 6:10 pm (PDT)
Arrest Bush
Bush Confesses to Waterboarding.
Call D.C. Cops!
by Ted Rall
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
http://TedRall.com
?Why are we talking about this in the White House?? John Ashcroft nervously asked his fellow members of the National Security Council?s Principals Committee. (The Principals were Vice President Dick Cheney, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Colin Powell, CIA Director George Tenet and Attorney General Ashcroft.)
?History will not judge this kindly,? Ashcroft predicted.
?This? is torture. Against innocent people. Conducted by CIA agents and American soldiers and marines. Sanctioned by legal opinions issued by Ashcroft?s Justice Department. Directly ordered by George W. Bush.
An April 11th report by ABC News describes how CIA agents, asked by previous presidents to carry out illegal ?black ops? actions (torture and killings), had become tired of getting hung out to dry whenever their dirty deeds were revealed by the press. When the Bush Administration asked the CIA to work over prisoners captured in Afghanistan, Pakistan and elsewhere, Director George Tenet demanded legal cover. The Justice Department complied by issuing a classified 2002 memo, the so-called ?Golden Shield,? authored by Office of Legal Counsel Jay Bybee. ?Enhanced interrogation techniques? ? i.e., torture ? were legal, Bybee assured the CIA.
Tenet was a good boss, a CYA type. He wanted to protect his agents. So he got the Principals to personally sign off on each act of torture.
?According to a former CIA official involved in the process,? ABC reported, ?CIA headquarters would receive cables from operatives in the field asking for authorization for specific techniques.? Can we beat up this guy? Can we waterboard him?
The Bushies weren?t otherwise known for dwelling on details. Osama was in Pakistan; they invaded Afghanistan instead. Two years later, he was still in Pakistan. They invaded Iraq. Bush and his top officials still found time to walk through every step of torment a detainee would suffer in some CIA dungeon halfway around the world.
?The high-level discussions about these ?enhanced interrogation techniques? were so detailed, [Bush Administration] sources said, some of the interrogation sessions were almost choreographed ? down to the number of times CIA agents could use a specific tactic. These top advisers signed off on how the CIA would interrogate top Al Qaeda suspects ? whether they would be slapped, pushed, deprived of sleep or subjected to simulated drowning, called waterboarding, sources told ABC news.?
Bush knew.
Not only did he know, he personally approved it. He likes torture.
?Yes, I?m aware our national security team met on this issue,? he confirmed. ?And I approved.?
When the U.S. signs a treaty, its provisions carry the full force of U.S. law. One such treaty is the U.N. Convention Against Torture, of which the U.S. is a core signatory. As Philippe Sands writes in his new book ?Torture Team:? Parties to the? Convention are required to investigate any person who is alleged to have committed torture. If appropriate, they must then prosecute ? or extradite the person to a place where he will be prosecuted. The Torture Convention? criminalizes any act that constitutes complicity or participation in torture. Complicity or participation could certainly be extended not only to the politicians and but also the lawyers involved??
George W. Bush has publicly confessed that he ordered torture, thus violating the Convention Against Torture. He, Cheney, Rumseld, Rice and the other Principals must therefore be arrested and, unlike the thousands of detainees kidnapped by the U.S. since 9/11, arraigned and placed on trial.
Because the torture ordered by Bush and his cabinet directly resulted in death, they must additionally be charged with several counts of murder. Fifteen U.S. soldiers have been charged with the murders of two detainees at the U.S. airbase at Bagram, Afghanistan in 2002. They were following orders issued by their Commander-in-Chief and his Principals.
One of the Bagram victims was Dilawar, a 22-year-old Afghan taxi driver. ?On the day of his death,? reported The New York Times on May 22, 2005, ?Dilawar had been chained by the wrists to the top of his cell for much of the previous four days. A guard tried to force the young man to his knees. But his legs, which had been pummeled by guards for several days, could no longer bend? Several hours passed before an emergency room doctor finally saw Mr. Dilawar. By then he was dead, his body beginning to stiffen. It would be many months before Army investigators learned a final horrific detail: Most of the interrogators had believed Mr. Dilawar was an innocent man who simply drove his taxi past the American base at the wrong time.?
At least four detainees have committed suicide at the torture camp created by George W. Bush after 9/11 at Guantánamo Bay. Twenty-five more made 41 unsuccessful attempts to kill themselves. The conditions of their confinement ? ordered by Bush and his Principals ? constitutes torture. It no doubt prompted their deaths.
If George W. Bush were an ordinary citizen, there can be little doubt that he would face a long prison sentence for the scores of acts of torture he authorized both specifically and generally. Four of the seven white hillbillies charged with the kidnap-torture of a black woman in Logan County, West Virginia are now in jail for at least the next ten years.
If Bush weren?t president, he would face murder charges. The maximum sentence in a federal murder case is death.
If Bush and his co-conspirators are not above the law, if the United States remains a nation where all citizens are equal, they must be arrested and indicted. But by whom?
The Supreme Court has never resolved the question of whether a sitting president can be arrested by civilian authorities. Even if he were charged and convicted, many legal experts say he could issue himself a pardon.
However, leaving the presidency in the hands of an self-admitted torture killer is unacceptable. Congress could ask a U.S. Marshal to arrest Bush as part of impeachment charges. But the ultimate outcome ? removing him from office a few months before the end of his term ? seems woefully inadequate given the nature of the charges. In any case, Democrats have already said that impeachment is ?off the table.?
Bush could be extradited to one of the countries where the torture and murders were committed ? such as Afghanistan or Cuba. But he could claim immunity as a head of state.
There is, however, a person who could begin holding Bush and the others accountable for their crimes.
She is Cathy L. Lanier, the 39-year-old chief of D.C.?s Metropolitan Police Department. Chief Lanier, take note: you have probable cause to arrest a self-confessed serial torturer and mass murderer within the borders of the District of Columbia. He resides at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Go get him.
History is calling, Chief Lanier. Your city, and your country, needs you.
Ted Rall is the author of the new book ?Silk Road to Ruin: Is Central Asia the New Middle East?,? an in-depth prose and graphic novel analysis of America?s next big foreign policy challenge.
© 2008 Ted Rall
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Posted by: “noother35” noother35@hotmail.com
Wed Apr 30, 2008 7:08 pm (PDT)
bush, think it over, bring our troops back home where they belong. i
hate seeing them suffer over there, and enough damage has been done.
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May Day 2008 Statement from the Iraqi Labour Movement
To the Workers and All Peace Loving People of the World
April 29th, 2008
On this day of international labour solidarity we call on our fellow trade unionists and all those worldwide who have stood against war and occupation to increase support for our struggle for freedom from occupation – both the military and economic.
We call upon the governments, corporations and institutions behind the ongoing occupation of Iraq to respond to our demands for real democracy, true sovereignty and self-determination free of all foreign interference.
Five years of invasion, war and occupation have brought nothing but death, destruction, misery and suffering to our people. In the name of our “liberation,” the invaders have destroyed our nation’s infrastructure, bombed our neighbourhoods, broken into our homes, traumatized our children, assaulted and arrested many of our family members and neighbours, permitted the looting of our national treasures, and turned nearly twenty percent of our people into refugees.
The invaders helped to foment and then exploit sectarian divisions and terror attacks where there had been none. Our union offices have been raided. Union property has been seized and destroyed. Our bank accounts have been frozen. Our leaders have been beaten, arrested, abducted and assassinated. Our rights as workers have been routinely violated.
The Ba’athist legislation of 1987, which banned trade unions in the public sector and public enterprises (80% of all workers), is still in effect, enforced by Paul Bremer’s post-invasion Occupation Authority and then by all subsequent Iraqi administrations. This is an attack on our rights and basic precepts of a democratic society, and is a grim reminder of the shadow of dictatorship still stalking our country.
Despite the horrific conditions in our country, we continue to organise and protest against the occupation, against workplaces abuses, and for better treatment and safer conditions.
Despite the sectarian plots around us, we believe in unity and solidarity and a common aim of public service, equality, and freedom to organise without external intrusions and coercion.
Our legitimacy comes from our members. Our principles of organisation are based on transparent and internationally recognised International Labour Organisation standards.
We call upon our allies and all the world’s peace-loving peoples to help us to end the nightmare of occupation and restore our sovereignty and national independence so that we can chart our own course to the future.
1) We demand an immediate withdrawal of all foreign troops from our country, and utterly reject the agreement being negotiated with the USA for long-term bases and a military presence. The continued occupation fuels the violence in Iraq rather than alleviating it. Iraq must be returned to full sovereignty.
2) We demand the passage of a labour law promised by our Constitution, which adheres to ILO principles and on which Iraqi trade unionists have been fully consulted, to protect the rights of workers to organize, bargain and strike, independent of state control and interference.
3) We demand an end to meddling in our sovereign economic affairs by the International Monetary Fund, USA and UK. We demand withdrawal of all economic conditionalities attached to the IMF’s agreements with Iraq, removal of US and UK economic “advisers” from the corridors of Iraqi government, and a recognition by those bodies that no major economic decisions concerning our services and resources can be made while foreign troops occupy the country.
4) We demand that the US government and others immediately cease lobbying for the oil law, which would fracture the country and hand control over our oil to multinational companies like Exxon, BP and Shell. We demand that all oil companies be prevented from entering into any long-term agreement concerning oil while Iraq remains occupied. We demand that the Iraqi government tear up the current draft of the oil law, and begin to develop a legitimate oil policy based on full and genuine consultation with the Iraqi people. Only after all occupation forces are gone should a long term plan for the development of our oil resources be adopted.
We seek your support and solidarity to help us end the military and economic occupation of our country. We ask for your solidarity for our right to organise and strike in defence of our interests as workers and of our public services and resources. Our public services are the legacy of generations before us and the inheritance of all future generations and must not be privatised.
We thank you for standing by us. We too stand with you in your own struggles for real democracy which we know you also struggle for, and against privatisation, exploitation and daily disempowerment in your workplaces and lives.
We commend those of you who have organised strikes and demonstrations to end the occupation in solidarity with us and we hope these actions will continue.
We look forward to the day when we have a world based on co-operation and solidarity. We look forward to a world free from war, sectarianism, competition and exploitation.
Endorsed by: (signers as of 4/29/08)
Hassan Juma’a Awad, President, Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions (IFOU)
Faleh Abood Umara, Deputy, Central Council, Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions (IFOU)
Falah Alwan, President, Federation of Workers Councils and Unions in Iraq (FWCUI)
Subhi Albadri, President, General Federation of Workers Councils and Unions in Iraq (GFWCUI)
Nathim Rathi, President, Iraqi Port Workers Trade Union
Samir Almuawi, President, Engineering Professionals Trade Union
Ghzi Mushatat, President, Mechanic and Print Shop Trade Union
Waleed Alamiri, President, Electricity Trade Union
Ilham Talabani, President, Banking Services Trade Union
Abdullah Ubaid, President, Railway Trade Union
Ammar Ali, President, Transportation Trade Union
Abdalzahra Abdilhassan, President, Service Employees Trade Union
Sundus Sabeeh, President, Barber Shop Workers Trade Union
Kareem Lefta Sindan, President, Lumber and Construction Trade Union, General Federation of Iraqi Workers (GFIW)
Sabah Almusawi, President, Wasit Independent Trade Union
Shakir Hameed, President, Lumber And Construction Trade Union (GFWCUI)
Awad Ahmed, President, Teachers Federation of Salahideen
Alaa Ghazi Mushatat, President, Agricultural And Food Substance Industries
Adnan Rathi Shakir, President, Water Resources Trade Union
Nahrawan Yas, President, Woman Affairs Bureau
Sabah Alyasiri, President (GFWCUI) Babil
Ali Tahi, President (GFWCUI) Najaf
Ali Abbas, President (GFWCUI) Basra
Muhi Abdalhussien, President (GFWCUI), Wasit
Ali Hashim Abdilhussien, President (GFWCUI) Kerbala
Ali Hussien, President (GFWCUI) Anbar
Mustafa Ameen, Arab Workers Bureau, President (GFWCUI)
Thameer Mzeail, Health Services, Union Committee
Khadija Saeed Abdullah, Teachers Federation, Member
Asmahan, Khudair, Woman Affairs, Textile Trade Unions
Adil Aljabiri, Oil Workers Trade Union Executive Bureau Member
Muhi Abdalhussien, Nadia Flaih, Service Employees Trade Unions
Rawneq Mohammed, Member, Media and Print Shop Trade Union
Abdlakareem Abdalsada, Vice President (GFWCUI)
Saeed Nima, Vice President (GFWCUI)
Sabri Abdalkareem, Member, (GFWCUI) Babil
Amjad Aljawhary, Representative of GFWCUI in North America
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