On 11 June 2008, by a unanimous verdict of the jury, the Raytheon 9 were found not guilty of three counts of criminal damage at the Raytheon offices, Derry Northern Ireland on 9 August 2006.
Immediately afterwards, the defendants addressed supporters and press outside Belfast’s Laganside Court. Colm Bryce began:
“The Raytheon 9 have been aquitted today in Belfast for their action in decommissioning the Raytheon offices in Derry in August 2006. The prosecution could produce not a shred of evidence to counter our case that we had acted to prevent the commission of war crimes during the Lebanon war by the Israeli armed forces using weapons supplied by Raytheon.
Health Care Demonstration to Target the Offices of GHI and United Health. info@healthcare-now.org (330) 618-6379
NEW YORKERS PROTEST AGAINST HEALTH INSURANCE COMPANIES
A coalition of health care rights and labor groups will hold a demonstration in front of the Manhattan office of GHI (441 9th Avenue) at 5:00 pm on Thursday June 19th as part of a National Day of Protest Against Health Insurance Companies. A march will proceed from the currently non-profit GHI to the offices of one of the largest health care profiteers, United Health (One Penn Plaza). Demonstrators intend to highlight their opposition to the proposed conversion of GHI & HIP to a merged for-profit company and support of the National Health Insurance Act (House Resolution 676).
Globalization continues to break down its own myths, especially in developing countries.
In Mexico, the promise of more jobs withered shortly after NAFTA went into effect, when it became clear that displacement outpaced job generation. Now, its twin promise-that globalization would create better jobs and improve standards of living-has finally committed public suicide as well.
According to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) there are are 5 countries allowed to have nuclear weapons. India, Pakistan, and Israel all posses nuclear weapons illegally.
“Today eight countries are possessing nuclear weapons. The five nuclear weapons states United States, Russia (former Soviet Union), United Kingdom, France and China, are the only countries allowed to have nuclear weapons according to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) from 1970. All members of the United Nations except Israel, India and Pakistan have signed the NPT. ”
Considering Israel’s history of attacking their neighbors with impunity (Egypt, Lebanon, and of course the Palestinians) and Pakistan’s relationship with terrorist organizations (they are the base of operations for al Qaeda after all) these two nations most certainly should not be in possession of illegal Weapons of Mass Destruction.
So you think “Main Core” is a joke? You think governments putting people on “lists” is harmless? Hype?
To the people out there laughing about health-care at Gitmo and picking out bunk beds…
laugh it up…
If you think Carl Roves promise of a “permanent majority” was a joke, go ahead. But I don’t think anything these bastards did was a “joke”. They’ve gotten away with it, and they have no plans to just give up now, because you have a voter registration card.
(One of the most influential and hard-hitting anti-war sites out there needs our help. Yeah, money is tight and the elections are taking a bunch of our spare change, but if we can spare $10 or so, why not zap it over to these guys. We can’t let the truth become extinct.)
If you haven’t already noticed, this is the third day of our quarterly fundraising drive, spring edition. I don’t think I have to impress upon those who have been followingthenewslately the continuing relevance of Antiwar.com. Every day brings more indications of an imminent attack on Iran by the U.S., and the widening chaos in Lebanon makes it another likely site for U.S. intervention.
This fundraising drive is going to be a real obstacle course; I can feel it in my bones - and see it coming in the headlinesabout the declining economy. People are having a hard time just getting by these days, and it’s too much to expect that this won’t affect our fundraising.
(It is important to note how this started. The police suggest that these guys were suspects in a shooting just before… yet, note that the cops didn’t conduct a “Felony Stop” procedure. That’s what they do when they suspect armed perps. That where they draw their guns and command them to get out of the car and lay down on the ground. Instead, these cops run up to the car and start pulling them out physically. Does that seem like cops who think these guys may have guns in the car? Wouldn’t they be afraid the guys would shoot them? Instead these cops seem to know they are not armed, according to their own policies…)
PHILADELPHIA - A half-dozen police officers kicked and beat three men pulled from a car during a traffic stop as a TV helicopter taped the confrontation.
The video, shot by WTXF-TV, shows three police cars stopping a car Monday, two days after a city officer was shot to death responding to a bank robbery.
The tape shows about a dozen officers gathering around the vehicle. About a half-dozen officers hold two of the men on the ground. Both are kicked repeatedly, while one is seen being punched; one also appears to be struck with a baton.
“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)
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.
US Constitution: Amendment XIII,1865: ”1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”
The United States has 2.3 million people behind bars, right now. That’s 25% of all of the people serving time, in the world, in a country that only has 5% of the world’s overall population. And the trend shows that number is going up.
There are many factors involved in this phenomena but one that, more and more, shouldn’t be ignored, is politics.
