Under Duress

Main Entry:

du·ress

Pronunciation:

\du̇-ˈres also dyu̇-\

Function:

noun

Etymology:

Middle English duresse, from Anglo-French duresce hardness, severity, from Latin duritia, from durus

Date:

15th century

1: forcible restraint or restriction2: compulsion by threat; specifically : unlawful constraint

May Day!

“Clarence Thomas, National Co-Chair of the Million Worker March Movement and Executive Board member of International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 10, spoke on April 24th, 2008, at the Iraq Town Hall meeting, in the Grand Lake Theater, Oakland, CA. The ILWU has committed to blocking ports on May 1st in opposition to the occupation of Iraq.” from David Swanson of After Downing Street, here.

The following is a letter from the The General Union of Port Workers in Iraq to the ILWU in support of the action that they are taking tomorrow. Solidarity between the people of one country to the next; Iraq and America. This is how bridges are built, and wounds are healed.

“Dear Brothers and Sisters of ILWU in California

The courageous decision you made to carry out a strike on May Day to protest against the war and occupation of Iraq advances our struggle against occupation to bring a better future for us and for the rest of the world as well.

We are certain that a better world will only be created by the workers and what you are doing is an example and proof of what we say. The labor movement is the only element in the society that is able to change the political equations for the benefit of mankind. We in Iraq are looking up to you and support you until the victory over the US administration’s barbarism is achieved.

Over the past five years the sectarian gangs who are the product of the occupation, have been trying to transfer their conflicts into our ranks. Targeting workers, including their residential and shopping areas, indiscriminately using all sorts of explosive devices, mortar shells, and random shooting, were part of a bigger scheme that was aiming to tear up the society but they miserably failed to achieve their hellish goal. We are struggling today to defeat both the occupation and sectarian militias’ agenda.

The pro-occupation government has been attempting to intervene into the workers affairs by imposing a single government-certified labor union. Furthermore it has been promoting privatization and an oil and gas law to use the occupation against the interests of the workers.

We the port workers view that our interests are inseparable from the interests of workers in Iraq and the world; therefore we are determined to continue our struggle to improve the living conditions of the workers and overpower all plots of the occupation, its economic and political projects.

Let us hold hands for the victory of our struggle.

Long live the port workers in California!

Long live May Day!

Long live International solidarity!

The General Union of Port Workers in Iraq
An Affiliate Union with General Federation of Workers Councils and Unions in Iraq (GFWCUI)

I’m Out for a Couple days…

Gotta run and do a job in New Orleans for awhile.

But I wanted to leave you with something to mull over.

http://freedocumentaries.org/film.php?id=178  (the first box is a trailer… stop that and click on Watch the Movie)

For those of you who have yet to see it, I want you to go to this site and watch “Uncounted: The New Math of the American Election“. Unfortunately I am not good enough with the Http crap to embed it on this page. I would if I could.

I have recently lost several people I at one time considered close, over the issue of what to do with the remaining time we have till the election. So many “progressive” thinking people have shied away from the impeachment process for fear it may have an effect on the democratic nominee’s chances in Nov. Historically, nothing could be further from the truth (in fact, statistically, win or lose the impeachment bid, it seems to help the party trying).

But the fact is, this election will be rigged, in many ways, just like the last several. 2006 was not a clean election just because the dems won a slight advantage in congress. But don’t take my word for it… watch the film and remember all the stories that got some play in the past, and we have just forgotten about.

Obama isn’t going to fix our country and he isn’t the “best choice” we have; simply because we don’t have a choice at all. He won’t be president and even if he is tapped by this corrupt system, can we trust him? The fix is in, folks, and the sooner all of us progressive activist types figure that out, the better.

Enjoy the film (now that is sarcasm).

Pariah Diplomacy

(Since the MSM will not report accurately on the story, here it is told by the ex-president, Nobel Peace Prize winner, and the man who brokered the lasting peace accord between Israel and Egypt. “After leaving office, Carter founded an institute to promote global health, democracy and human rights. He has traveled extensively to monitor international elections, conduct peace negotiations and establish relief efforts.^[7] He is also a key figure in Habitat for Humanity.” Wiki.  When this man writes an op-ed about diplomacy, the statesman in DC should take the time to read it.) 

By JIMMY CARTER HIS OP ED FROM NYT, HERE.

A COUNTERPRODUCTIVE Washington policy in recent years has been to boycott and punish political factions or governments that refuse to accept United States mandates. This policy makes difficult the possibility that such leaders might moderate their policies.

House Democrats Working on Funding the War for 6 Months into the Next President’s Term

(What it all boils down to is this: “…  conservative Democrats, who believe cutting off the war funding would make the party look weak on national security and put its majority at risk.”  Politicians who are afraid of losing their feeble grip on a little power, would keep our soldiers in harms way rather than take a risk and do what is right and what the vast majority of the citizens of this country want: bring our troops home and end this illegal occupation. Democrats/Republicans, it makes no difference… they are all out for themselves and we had better face that fact sooner rather than later.)

Zachary Coile, Chronicle Washington Bureau from SFC story, here.

House Democratic leaders are putting together the largest Iraq war spending bill yet, a measure that is expected to fund the war through the end of the Bush presidency and for nearly six months into the next president’s term.

These are the American Values We Brought to Iraq?

(I am going to insert pictures into this article of Iraqis standing in line, once a month, for their food rations in Sadr City; just one 12′ tall concrete wall away from the bloat of the Green Zone. On a good day, I bet those same Iraqis can smell the fries cooking.)

 

“Bloated in Baghdad” from Truthdig, here

CAMP STRYKER, Iraq-The first warning that many U.S. troops receive here in Baghdad isn’t about the rampant IEDs (improvised explosive devices), or the RPGs (rocket propelled grenades), or even the EFPs (explosively formed projectiles). It’s about the PCPs: the pervasive combat paunches.

(Waiting in line for their monthly food rations just outside the Green Zone in Sadr City. An estimated 2.5 million of Iraq’s displaced Shia population lives in this walled off “Warsaw ghetto-like” neighborhood.

“Nazis then closed off the Warsaw Ghetto from the outside world in 1940, building a wall with armed guards.” … “Average food rations in 1941 for Jews in Warsaw were limited to 253 kcal,…”  Wiki)

 

 

As I wait for my C-130 flight from Kuwait to western Baghdad, a soldier tells me about a PowerPoint slide that’s becoming popular in Army briefings: “Back in 2003, the average soldier lost 15 pounds during his tour of Iraq,” he recounts. “Now, he gains 10.”

Hitler’s Name Cited Again to Justify Even More Illegal Wars

(So why are we going to war with Iran? Our “interests in the region” want us too, that’s why)

“IAF Chief: Hitler wasn’t believed, we can’t make that mistake with Ahmadinejad”

from Haaretz, here.

The Commander of the Israel Air Force, Major General Eliezer Shkedi, said in a television interview that “in Nazi Germany, people didn’t believe that Hitler meant what he was saying. I suggest that we refrain from repeating that line of reasoning and prepare ourselves for anything.”

Israeli ex-soldiers expose abuse of Palestinians

from The Christian Science Monitor, here.

TEL AVIV, ISRAEL - Doron Efrati was assigned to the Kfir Brigade, part of an infantry battalion that was especially created to serve in the West Bank following the outbreak of the second intifada.

He figured if he was going to be drafted anyway, he would agree to serve in the Israeli-occupied territories, “to see what really happens, and maybe to change things,” he says. “But I didn’t succeed.”

Today, he is one of 39 recently discharged soldiers whose testimonies are part of a grim new report on the situation in the West Bank city of Hebron, where the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) oversee a volatile population of 700 to 800 Jewish settlers living amid nearly 170,000 Palestinians. The 118-page report, which tells of systematic mistreatment of local Palestinians by both soldiers and settlers, was released during this week’s Passover holiday.

Missing Olberman Report on Veteran Suicide Rates…

This morning, a funny thing happened. I was just drinking my coffee, minding my own business, rifling through the 16,000 stories about Billy Ray Cyrus’ kid’s picture (or some such mindless drivel like that), trying to find some real news (tuff to do these days) and I stumbled across a video on MSNBC from Countdown.

It was a great story about the head of the VA’s phych department lying about how many suicide attempts there were in 2007. 

Anyway, I did some work and went back to find it so I could finish watching the story, and low and behold… it was gone. Can’t find that video anywhere. Not on MSNBC and not on Countdown’s website either.

So, it would appear that for some reason they don’t want people talking about the MASSIVE epidemic of veterans suicides. So what do I do? I go research a bit, and find the damn transcript off of Countdowns website. (heehee)

So here it is folks; the transcript of Thursday April 24th’s 4th story;

Dr. Ira Katz Cover-up of the Suicide Rates of US Veterans. enjoy.

Get to Know a Sellout! Episode 1

by Scott Creighton

Today we begin a new program at American Everyman; Get to Know a Sellout! Each week we will be selecting a new member for our “sellouts! list”, in order to highlight their fabulous accomplishments in the field of selling out their country, their constituents, and their honor, to the newly formed “business party elites”. These are special kinds of people whose efforts shouldn’t go unnoticed, in the event that the people of this country ever wake the fuck up.

And now for the big event… the first of the Get to Know a Sellout! list… the Mack-Daddy of All sellouts… (you have to look under the break (like looking under a rock) to see him (that’s a hint)…