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“They can kill somebody’s body, but they can’t kill love.” - Cindy
Sheehan, April 13th at Indianapolis.

Watch Cindy Sheehan at Traprock Peace TV (CounterPunch "website of
the day"):

http://www.traprockpeace.org/traprock_video/

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Tell Bush and Congress:
Don't Release Luis Posada Carriles!
Extradite Posada to Venezuela
https://secure2.convio.net/pep/site/Advocacy?JServSessionIdr006=238mdc75w3.app8a&cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=159

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ARTICLES IN FULL:
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1) Lordstown test case: Nonunion janitors,
10-hour straight-time
Jamie LaReau and Dave Barkholz | Automotive News / April 16, 2007
[Via Email from: This is from a subscription site, AutoNews.com,
which is why I am posting the entire piece.
--Steven Matthews steve@panix.com]

2) Are mobile phones wiping out our bees?
"Scientists claim radiation from handsets are to blame
for mysterious 'colony collapse' of bees..."
By Geoffrey Lean and Harriet Shawcross
Published: 15 April 2007
http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/wildlife/article2449968.ece

3) Young People and the War in Iraq
By JANET ELDER
NY Times, April 17, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/17/us/politics/18web-elder.html?8dpc

4) Denying the Right to Choose
April 19, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/19/opinion/19thu1.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

5) Frolicking Visitor Delights Hearts, Then Dies
By ANTHONY RAMIREZ and ANN FARMER
April 19, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/19/nyregion/19whale.html?ref=nyregion

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1) Lordstown test case: Nonunion janitors,
10-hour straight-time
Jamie LaReau and Dave Barkholz | Automotive News / April 16, 2007
[Via Email from: This is from a subscription site, AutoNews.com,
which is why I am posting the entire piece.
--Steven Matthews steve@panix.com]

General Motors' Lordstown, Ohio, assembly plant has become the
test site for a companywide cost-cutting effort that could save
hundreds of millions of dollars a year.

As part of an ambitious productivity strategy dubbed "True North,"
GM is asking local UAW leaders at all plants to consider a variety
of once-taboo efficiency measures.

In late February, GM opened negotiations with Lordstown's union
officials. GM wants the union to accept nonunion janitors, work
10-hour shifts without overtime pay, allow nonunion workers to
replenish parts bins and let nonunion truckers deliver and unload
parts shipments.

The unstated threat: If the workers reject GM's proposals,
production of the 2009 Cobalt might move to Mexico.

If the union allows it, True North could generate big savings.
According to a knowledgeable source, the companywide use of
nonunion janitors -- who would earn about $12 per hour instead of
$28 per hour -- alone could save GM $300 million to $500 million a
year.

Each UAW GM local would have to negotiate its own deal, but
sources say the Lordstown talks could become an important
precedent. Says a source close to GM: "The changes you see in
Lordstown could foreshadow what you see in the rest of GM's
contracts."

Unprecedented concessions

Traditionally, local union leaders negotiate each plant's work
rules in the same year the UAW bargains new labor contracts with
GM, Ford Motor Co. and the Chrysler group.

The national negotiations, which cover wages and benefits, get all
the media attention. But local work rules have a big effect on
each plant's productivity. And this year the Detroit 3 are
demanding unprecedented concessions.

"There's a lot of negotiating going on right now -- not just at
GM, but Ford and Chrysler as well," says Laurie Harbour-Felax, a
manufacturing consultant who is president of Harbour-Felax Group
in suburban Detroit. "They need to get their labor agreements to
be as competitive as possible."

A similar plant-by-plant cost-cutting program launched last year
by Ford could generate more than $600 million in annual savings.
An agreement signed last year at just one plant -- Ford's Rouge
assembly plant in Dearborn, Mich. -- will save $100 million a
year.

A GM source confirmed True North's existence, but declined an
on-the-record interview. Lordstown appears to be a test site in
part because it produces small cars -- a product segment that has
not been profitable for the Detroit 3.

No guarantees

UAW Local 1112, which represents about 2,600 workers at Lordstown
assembly, already has accepted some changes on behalf of some
members who make headliners for Lear Corp. The Lear workers
accepted a five-year pay freeze and eased work rules, and agreed
to $12 weekly benefit co-pays.

Those workers also agreed that skilled-trades workers would assume
additional duties, such as sweeping the floors, without any change
in pay.

But Rich Rankin, Local 1112's Lear shop chairman, says he still is
worried that Lordstown might lose the next-generation Cobalt.
"Everybody is very nervous and on edge," Rankin says. "We're just
fed up. We keep giving and giving with no guarantees."

Other plants face similar cuts. At the Fairfax assembly plant in
Kansas City, Kan., GM's cost-cutting target is $54 million.

GM wants to shift about 20 percent of the work now performed by
UAW members to outside contractors, says Jeff Manning, president
of UAW Local 31. That would affect about 500 of the plant's 2,500
union jobs, he said.

Outside workers would assemble doors, wheels and engines.
Outsiders also would operate forklifts and handle janitorial jobs.

In exchange for the loss of those high-paying jobs, Fairfax would
get a shot at a replacement vehicle when the plant stops producing
the Chevrolet Malibu and Malibu Maxx and Saturn Aura in 2011.

Management sacrifice?

But Manning says the rank-and-file might not approve True North
unless GM management shares the financial sacrifice. "It's going
to be tough," he said. "It'd be far easier if management shared in
the $54 million."

GM has been cagey about its future plans for each assembly plant.
Even if workers at Fairfax and Lordstown embrace True North, GM is
not guaranteeing that those plants will stay open, union officials
say.

GM has not threatened to shut Lordstown if the plant's hourly
workers refuse to budge. But UAW leaders know they're in a
predicament.

"They're asking us to come up with these new work rules, but with
no guarantee of a product," says Dave Green, president of UAW
1714, which represents Lordstown's stamping plant. "That's one of
the sticking points. Everybody is on pins and needles."

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2) Are mobile phones wiping out our bees?
"Scientists claim radiation from handsets are to blame
for mysterious 'colony collapse' of bees..."
By Geoffrey Lean and Harriet Shawcross
Published: 15 April 2007
http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/wildlife/article2449968.ece

It seems like the plot of a particularly far-fetched horror
film. But some scientists suggest that our love of the mobile
phone could cause massive food shortages, as the world's
harvests fail.

They are putting forward the theory that radiation given off
by mobile phones and other hi-tech gadgets is a possible answer
to one of the more bizarre mysteries ever to happen in the
natural world - the abrupt disappearance of the bees that
pollinate crops. Late last week, some bee-keepers claimed
that the phenomenon - which started in the US, then spread
to continental Europe - was beginning to hit Britain as well.

The theory is that radiation from mobile phones interferes
with bees' navigation systems, preventing the famously home
loving species from finding their way back to their hives.
Improbable as it may seem, there is now evidence to back
this up.

Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) occurs when a hive's
inhabitants suddenly disappear, leaving only queens,
eggs and a few immature workers, like so many apian Mary
Celestes. The vanished bees are never found, but thought
to die singly far from home. The parasites, wildlife and
other bees that normally raid the honey and pollen left
behind when a colony dies, refuse to go anywhere near the
abandoned hives.

The alarm was first sounded last autumn, but has now hit
half of all American states. The West Coast is thought
to have lost 60 per cent of its commercial bee population,
with 70 per cent missing on the East Coast.

CCD has since spread to Germany, Switzerland, Spain,
Portugal, Italy and Greece. And last week John Chapple,
one of London's biggest bee-keepers, announced that 23
of his 40 hives have been abruptly abandoned.

Other apiarists have recorded losses in Scotland, Wales
and north-west England, but the Department of the Environment,
Food and Rural Affairs insisted: "There is absolutely no
evidence of CCD in the UK."

The implications of the spread are alarming. Most of the
world's crops depend on pollination by bees. Albert Einstein
once said that if the bees disappeared, "man would have only
four years of life left".

No one knows why it is happening. Theories involving mites,
pesticides, global warming and GM crops have been proposed,
but all have drawbacks.

German research has long shown that bees' behaviour changes
near power lines.

Now a limited study at Landau University has found that bees
refuse to return to their hives when mobile phones are placed
nearby. Dr Jochen Kuhn, who carried it out, said this could
provide a "hint" to a possible cause.

Dr George Carlo, who headed a massive study by the US government
and mobile phone industry of hazards from mobiles in the
Nineties, said: "I am convinced the possibility is real."

The case against handsets

Evidence of dangers to people from mobile phones is increasing.
But proof is still lacking, largely because many of the
biggest perils, such as cancer, take decades to show up.

Most research on cancer has so far proved inconclusive. But
an official Finnish study found that people who used the phones
for more than 10 years were 40 per cent more likely to get
a brain tumour on the same side as they held the handset.

Equally alarming, blue-chip Swedish research revealed that
radiation from mobile phones killed off brain cells,
suggesting that today's teenagers could go senile in
the prime of their lives.

Studies in India and the US have raised the possibility
that men who use mobile phones heavily have reduced sperm
counts. And, more prosaically, doctors have identified
the condition of "text thumb", a form of RSI from constant
texting.

Professor Sir William Stewart, who has headed two official
inquiries, warned that children under eight should not use
mobiles and made a series of safety recommendations, largely
ignored by ministers.

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3) Young People and the War in Iraq
By JANET ELDER
NY Times, April 17, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/17/us/politics/18web-elder.html?8dpc

The younger generation is opposed to the war in Iraq, right? Wrong.
Actually, they're divided on the war, far more so than their
grandparents, according to a New York Times/CBS News Poll in March.
Seems younger people are more supportive of the war and the president
than any other age group.

Forty-eight percent of Americans 18 to 29 years old said the United
States did the right thing in taking military action against Iraq,
while 45 percent said the United States should have stayed out. That
is in sharp contrast to the opinions of those 65 and older, who have
lived through many other wars. Twenty eight percent of that age group
said the United States did the right thing, while 67 percent said the
United States should have stayed out.

This is nothing new, said John Mueller, author of "War, Presidents
and Public Opinion," and a professor of political science at Ohio
State University. "This is a pattern that is identical to what we saw
in Korea and Vietnam, younger people are more likely to support what
the president is doing," he said.

A review of the March poll suggests Mr. Mueller has a point. Overall,
34 percent of Americans said they approved of the way the president
was handling his job, and 58 percent disapproved. But younger
Americans were more approving than older Americans. Forty percent of
18-29 year olds said Mr. Bush was doing a good job, while 56 percent
said he was not. While 29 percent of people 65 and older said they
approved of the way Mr. Bush was handling his job as president, 62
percent said they did not.

The nationwide telephone poll was conducted March 7-11 with 1,362
adults and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three
percentage points.

A look back at the Vietnam years showed a similar divide between
young and old. Older Americans were defined as 50 and older, but the
comparison is still apt. In October 1968, when Hubert Humphrey,
Richard Nixon and George Wallace were running for president, a Gallup
poll found that about half, 52 percent, of people under the age of 30
supported the war in Vietnam. But among those 50 and older, 26
percent supported the war.

Some of the respondents to the March poll were called back to talk
about the differences between the young and the not so young.
"Experience," "the draft," "other wars," were mentioned by
respondents on both sides of the generational divide.

Mildred Jenkins, 68, a retired telephone operator from Somerville
Tennessee, said: "We've experienced more than the younger people.
Older people are wiser. We've seen war and we know." Ms. Jenkins said
she usually votes Republican but "may go Democratic this time."

More than one person who lived through the Vietnam war mentioned the
draft and the absence of one for this war. "It's because of life
experience," said Jimmie Powell, 73, a bartender and factory worker
from El Reno, Oklahoma. "I don't think younger people really know a
whole lot about anything. They don't care because there is no draft.
If there were a draft, we'd finally have the revolution we need."

Mr. Powell describes himself as a political independent.

Some of the younger respondents said they were more aggressive than
their elders by virtue of age.

"I think old people tend to want to solve things more diplomatically
than younger, more gung ho types," said Mary Jackson, 28 a homemaker
from Brewton, Alabama. "Younger people are more combative."

Younger people are also more optimistic. Forty-nine percent of them
said the United States was either very likely or somewhat likely to
succeed in Iraq, while only 34 percent of older people said the same
thing.

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4) Denying the Right to Choose
April 19, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/19/opinion/19thu1.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

Among the major flaws in yesterday’s Supreme Court decision
giving the federal government power to limit a woman’s right
to make decisions about her health was its fundamental
dishonesty.

Under the modest-sounding guise of following existing
precedent, the majority opinion — written by Justice Anthony
Kennedy and joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices
Clarence Thomas, Antonin Scalia and Samuel Alito — gutted
a host of thoughtful lower federal court rulings, not to
mention past Supreme Court rulings.

It severely eroded the constitutional respect and protection
accorded to women and the personal decisions they make about
pregnancy and childbirth. The justices went so far as to
eviscerate the crucial requirement, which dates to the 1973
ruling in Roe v. Wade, that all abortion regulations must
have an exception to protect a woman’s health.

As far as we know, Mr. Kennedy and his four colleagues
responsible for this atrocious result are not doctors.
Yet these five male justices felt free to override the
weight of medical evidence presented during the several
trials that preceded the Supreme Court showdown. Instead,
they ratified the politically based and dangerously dubious
Congressional claim that criminalizing the intact dilation
and extraction method of abortion in the second trimester
of pregnancy — the so-called partial-birth method — would
never pose a significant health risk to a woman. In fact,
the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists
has found the procedure to be medically necessary in
certain cases.

Justice Kennedy actually reasoned that banning the
procedure was good for women in that it would protect
them from a procedure they might not fully understand
in advance and would probably come to regret. This way
of thinking, that women are flighty creatures who must
be protected by men, reflects notions of a woman’s place
in the family and under the Constitution that have long
been discredited, said a powerful dissenting opinion by
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, joined by Justices John
Paul Stevens, David Souter and Stephen Breyer.

Far from being compelled by the court’s precedents,
Justice Ginsburg aptly objected, the new ruling is so at
odds with its jurisprudence — including a concurring opinion
by Justice Sandra Day O’Connor (who has now been succeeded
by Justice Alito) when a remarkably similar state abortion
ban was struck down just seven years ago — that it should
not have staying power.

For anti-abortion activists, this case has never been
about just one controversial procedure. They have correctly
seen it as a wedge that could ultimately be used to undermine
and perhaps eliminate abortion rights eventually. The court
has handed the Bush administration and other opponents of
women’s reproductive rights the big political victory they
were hoping to get from the conservative judges Mr. Bush has
added to the bench. It comes at a real cost to the court’s
credibility, its integrity and the rule of law.

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5) Frolicking Visitor Delights Hearts, Then Dies
By ANTHONY RAMIREZ and ANN FARMER
April 19, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/19/nyregion/19whale.html?ref=nyregion

A 12-foot-long whale that had surfaced and frolicked near
the mouth of the Gowanus Canal on Tuesday, delighting and
surprising even the most hardened of Brooklyn residents,
died yesterday, officials said.

The whale — a minke, the second-smallest whale species —
had been thought to be in good health because it was not
surfacing erratically. Like other ocean mammals, whales
must surface to breathe.

Shortly before 5 p.m., during low tide, it was seen churning
in the water. Teri Frady, a spokeswoman for the Fisheries
Service of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,
said, “It swam by a bulkhead” near the canal’s mouth, “thrashed
a little, and then expired.” Neither its age nor sex were known.

Earlier in the day, biologists speculated that the whale
might have followed krill or another food source into the
Gowanus Canal, whose polluted waters have cleared somewhat
in recent years.

Kim Durham, the rescue program director for the Riverhead
Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation, which arranges
for rescues of dolphins and other sea animals, said the dying
whale apparently beached itself after hitting rocks near a Hess
oil refinery.

Ms. Durham said she received an urgent phone call from
researchers at the scene. “ ‘Kim, there’s a lot of splashing
going on across the waterway,’ ” Ms. Durham recalled the
researchers saying. “ ‘We’re going to check it out.’ Our
team got on scene and the animal was dead.”

The Riverhead team secured the whale’s carcass with ropes
so it would not float out to sea, Ms. Durham said.

The Army Corps of Engineers is scheduled to transport the
carcass, which weighs several tons, to its Caven Point center
in New Jersey, across from Liberty Island. A necropsy is
scheduled for today, Ms. Durham said.

Word of the whale’s death reached Ms. Frady minutes after
in a telephone interview in which she described the difficulties
of rescuing an ill or hungry animal the size of a whale.

“The animal’s not going to sit there and let you net it,”
she said.

Big nets might pull human rescuers into the water, Ms. Frady
said. A flotilla of boats might not be able to coax the whale
back to sea. And if the whale is sick, the trauma of the rescue
attempt may hasten its death, Ms. Frady said.

A minke (pronounced MINK-ee) is the smallest of the whales,
except for the pygmy whales, according to Diana Reiss, a senior
research scientist at the New York Aquarium.

The largest whale, the blue whale, can reach 100 feet and
weigh more than 100 tons. The minke is a fast-swimming and
inquisitive species, and adult males can reach 26 feet and
females 33 feet.

For two days, the whale had been an object of admiration.
Parents brought small children, whale watchers brought
binoculars and photographers brought long lenses to the
areas overlooking the canal.

Debra Clarke, 36, an apartment and office organizer, arrived
in the early evening yesterday only to learn of the whale’s
death.

“We just came hoping for good news,” she said, noting that
she and her friends had spent most of the day watching
broadcast news of the Virginia Tech massacre. “After Virginia,
you come here rooting for the whale. You hope that something g
ood has to happen, because it turns out these are days
for tears.”

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LINKS AND VERY SHORT STORIES

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General strike in the Spanish province of Cadiz to support
employees of Delphi
April 18, 2007
http://euronews.net/index.php?page=eco&article=417644&lng=1

Graffiti Figure Admired as Artist Now Faces Vandalism Charges
By THOMAS J. LUECK
April 19, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/19/nyregion/19grafitti.html?ref=nyregion

Pet Food Recall Expanded
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
April 19, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Pet-Food-Recall.html?ref=us

Pet Food Recall
Updated: April 19, 2007
http://www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/hottopics/petfood.html

Gates Reassures Israel About Arms Sales in Gulf
By DAVID S. CLOUD
April 19, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/19/world/middleeast/19cnd-gates.html

A Lot of Uninvited Guests
Inter Press Service
Dahr Jamail
"DAMASCUS, Apr 18 (IPS) - The massive influx of Iraqi refugees
into Syria has brought rising prices and overcrowding, but most
Syrians seem to have accepted more than a million of the
refugees happily enough."
http://www.dahrjamailiraq.com/hard_news/archives/syria/000571.php

Supreme Court Upholds Ban on Abortion Procedure
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 12:53 p.m. ET
April 18, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Scotus-Abortion.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

Almost Human, and Sometimes Smarter
By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD
April 17, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/17/science/17chimp.html

Housing Slump Takes a Toll on Illegal Immigrants
By EDUARDO PORTER
"HURON, Calif. — Some of the casualties of America’s housing
bust are easy to spot up and down California’s Central Valley."
April 17, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/17/business/17construct.html?hp

US Troop Deaths Up 21 Percent in Iraq "Surge"
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/041507A.shtml

Tax Returns Rise for Immigrants in U.S. Illegally
By NINA BERNSTEIN
April 16, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/16/nyregion/16immig.html?ref=us

Virginia Tech Shooting Kills at Least 31
By CHRISTINE HAUSER and ANAHAD O’CONNOR
April 16, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/16/us/16cnd-shooting.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

Western Terror Acts in Cuba Mirror Those in Zim
The Herald (Harare)
INTERVIEW
April 14, 2007
Posted to the web April 14, 2007
http://allafrica.com/stories/printable/200704140038.html

Quantum Secrets of Photosynthesis Revealed
Contact: Lynn Yarris (510) 486-5375, lcyarris@lbl.gov
April 12, 2007
http://www.lbl.gov/Science-Articles/Archive/PBD-quantum-secrets.html

Conclusions Are Reported on Teaching of Abstinence
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON, April 14 (AP) — Students who participated in sexual
abstinence programs were just as likely to have sex as those
who did not, according to a study ordered by Congress.
Also, those who attended one of the four abstinence classes
reviewed reported having similar numbers of sexual partners
as those who did not attend the classes. And they first had
sex about the same age as other students — 14.9 years, according
to Mathematica Policy Research Inc.
The federal government spends about $176 million a year promoting
abstinence until marriage. Critics have repeatedly said they
did not believe the programs worked.
Bush administration officials cautioned against drawing sweeping
conclusions from the study, saying the four programs were some
of the very first established after Congress overhauled the
nation’s welfare laws in 1996.
Officials said one lesson they learned from the study was that
the abstinence message should be reinforced in subsequent years.
“This report confirms that these interventions are not like
vaccines,” said Harry Wilson, associate commissioner of the Family
and Youth Services Bureau at the federal Administration for Children
and Families. “You can’t expect one dose in middle school, or
a small dose, to be protective all throughout the youth’s high
school career.”
April 15, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/15/washington/15sex.html

Cuba: Ally Says Castro Has Resumed Some Duties
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
World Briefing | Americas
President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela told a news conference
that his close friend and ally Fidel Castro had “almost totally
recovered” from his illness and had “reassumed a good part
of his duties” as Cuba’s leader, although not formally.
Mr. Chávez has regularly offered updates on Mr. Castro’s
health in the more than eight months since the Cuban leader
underwent emergency intestinal surgery and ceded his leadership
responsibilities to his brother Raúl. The Cuban foreign minister,
Felipe Pérez Roque, traveling in Vietnam, also said that Mr. Castro,
who is 80, had resumed some of his leadership responsibilities.
“He receives reports about the country’s situation and is directly
involved in managing some important issues,” Mr. Roque said.
April 14, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/14/world/americas/14briefs-castro.html

Canadian Rail Workers Reject Contract Offer
By IAN AUSTEN
April 12, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/12/business/worldbusiness/12rail.html

Battle Over the Banlieues
By DAVID RIEFF
April 15, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/15/magazine/15elections.t.html?_r=1&ref=world&oref=slogin

The New Suburban Poverty
by EYAL PRESS
[from the April 23, 2007 issue]
http://www.thenation.com/docprint.mhtml?i=20070423&s=press

Canadian Auto Workers occupy parts
plant in Scarborough, Ontario
By Julian Benson from Toronto
Thursday, 12 April 2007
http://www.marxist.com/canadian-auto-workers-occupation110407.htm

U.S. Is Extending Tours of Army
By DAVID S. CLOUD
April 12, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/12/world/middleeast/12military.html

Kurt Vonnegut, Counterculture’s Novelist, Dies
By DINITIA SMITH
April 12, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/12/books/12vonnegut.html?hp

Robert Fisk: Divide and rule - America's plan for Baghdad
"Revealed: a new counter-insurgency strategy to carve up
the city into sealed areas. The tactic failed in Vietnam.
So what chance does it have in Iraq?"
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/fisk/article2439530.ece

Published: 11 April 2007

Refugees Speak of Escape from Hell
Inter Press Service
Dahr Jamail
"DAMASCUS, Apr 11 (IPS) - Refugees from Iraq scattered
around Damascus describe hellish conditions in the country
they managed to leave behind."
April 11, 2007
http://www.dahrjamailiraq.com/hard_news/archives/syria/000565.php#more

Manhattan: Leash-Free Dogs at Night in City Parks
By TIMOTHY WILLIAMS
The Parks and Recreation Department announced yesterday
that a policy of allowing dogs off leashes during overnight
hours will become effective next month. Beginning May 10,
owners with a license and proof of a current rabies
vaccination will be permitted to let their dogs roam
in designated areas of city parks from 9 p.m. to 9 a.m.
Under an unofficial policy, the department has for years
not given tickets to dog owners who let their pets run
free at night in parks.
April 11, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/11/nyregion/11mbrfs-dogs.html

How Trees Might Not Be Green in Carbon Offsetting Debate
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/04/10/443/

There is climate change censorship - and it's the
deniers who dish it out
"Global warming scientists are under intense pressure
to water down findings, and are then accused
of silencing their critics."
George Monbiot
Tuesday April 10, 2007
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2053521,00.html

American Tortured in Iraq Sues Rumsfeld
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/040907J.shtml

And These Refugees Are Lucky
http://www.dahrjamailiraq.com/hard_news/archives/syria/000561.php#more

Bush Renews Effort on Immigration Plan
By DAVID STOUT
April 9, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/09/washington/09cnd-prexy.html?hp

Ranchers and Army Are at Odds in Old West
By DAN FROSCH
"DENVER, April 6 — Mack Louden worries that his 30,000-acre
ranch sits in the cross hairs of the Army’s plans to expand
its Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site at Fort Carson, and he, along
with other Colorado ranchers, are increasingly upset
about the idea.
'Where we live, how we live, it’s all going to die a slow death
if the Army gets our land,' said Mr. Louden, a fourth-
generation rancher from Las Animas County, along the
southern edge of the state."
April 9, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/09/us/09hearing.html?ref=washington

Big Coal Invokes Reverse Nuremberg Defense
Massey Energy's CEO: Just Giving Orders, Not Carrying Them Out
By CORPORATE CRIME REPORTER
April 9, 2007
http://www.counterpunch.com/ccr04092007.html

The political situation in Venezuela – interview
with Yonie Moreno, member of the CMR in Venezuela
By Yonnie Moreno
Monday, 09 April 2007
www.handsoffvenezuela.org/political_situation_venezuela_moreno.htm

FOCUS | US Warplanes Attack Shiites as Civil War Rages in Iraq
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/040807Z.shtml

FOCUS | Thousands in LA Demand Immigrant Rights
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/040807Y.shtml

Pesticides Linked to Honeybee Population Decline
http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_4279.cfm

Executive Pay: A Special Report
More Pieces. Still a Puzzle.
By ERIC DASH
April 8, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/08/business/yourmoney/08pay.html?ref=business

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GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS AND INFORMATION
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DEMAND THE RELEASE OF SAMI AL-ARIAN

The National Council of Arab Americans (NCA) demands the immediate
release of political prisoner, Dr. Sami Al-Arian. Although
Dr. Al-Arian is no longer on a hunger strike we must still demand
he be released by the US Department of Justice (DOJ). After an earlier
plea agreement that absolved Dr. Al-Arian from any further questioning,
he was sentenced up to 18 months in jail for refusing to testify before
a grand jury in Virginia. He has long sense served his time yet
Dr. Al-Arian is still being held. Release him now!

See:
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/03/16/1410255

ACTION:

We ask all people of conscience to demand the immediate
release and end to Dr. Al- Arian's suffering.

Call, Email and Write:

1- Attorney General Alberto Gonzales
Department of Justice
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001
Fax Number: (202) 307-6777
Email: AskDOJ@usdoj.gov

2- The Honorable John Conyers, Jr
2426 Rayburn Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-5126
(202) 225-0072 Fax
John.Conyers@mail.house.gov

3- Senator Patrick Leahy
433 Russell Senate Office Building
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510
(202)224-4242
senator_leahy@leahy.senate.gov

4- Honorable Judge Gerald Lee
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia
401 Courthouse Square, Alexandria, VA 22314
March 22, 2007
[No email given...bw]

National Council of Arab Americans (NCA)
http://www.arab-american.net/

Criminalizing Solidarity: Sami Al-Arian and the War of
Terror
By Charlotte Kates, The Electronic Intifada, 4 April 2007
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article6767.shtml

Related:

Robert Fisk: The true story of free speech in America
This systematic censorship of Middle East reality
continues even in schools
Published: 07 April 2007
http://news. independent. co.uk/world/ fisk/article2430 125.ece

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[For some levity...Hans Groiner plays Monk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51bsCRv6kI0
...bw]

Excerpt of interview between Barbara Walters and Hugo Chavez
http://www.borev.net/2007/03/what_you_had_something_better.html

Which country should we invade next?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3g_zqz3VjY

My Favorite Mutiny, The Coup
http://www.myspace.com/thecoupmusic

Michael Moore- The Awful Truth
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeOaTpYl8mE

Morse v. Frederick Supreme Court arguments
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_LsGoDWC0o

Free Speech 4 Students Rally - Media Montage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfCjfod8yuw

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'My son lived a worthwhile life'
In April 2003, 21-year old Tom Hurndall was shot in the head
in Gaza by an Israeli soldier as he tried to save the lives of three
small children. Nine months later, he died, having never
recovered consciousness. Emine Saner talks to his mother
Jocelyn about her grief, her fight to make the Israeli army
accountable for his death and the book she has written
in his memory.
Monday March 26, 2007
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,2042968,00.html

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Introducing...................the Apple iRack
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-KWYYIY4jQ

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"A War Budget Leaves Every Child Behind."
[A T-shirt worn by some teachers at Roosevelt High School
in L.A. as part of their campaign to rid the school of military
recruiters and JROTC--see Article in Full item number 4, below...bw]

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THIS IS AN EXCELLENT VIDEO DESTRIBUTED BY U.S. LABOR AGAINST
THE WAR (USLAW) FEATURING SPEAKERS AT THE JANUARY 27TH
MARCH ON WASHINGTON FOCUSING ON THE DEMAND - BRING
THE TROOPS HOME NOW.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6935451906479097836&hl=en

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Defend the Los Angeles Eight!
http://www.committee4justice.com/

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George Takai responds to Tim Hardaway's homophobic remarks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcJoJZIcQW4&eurl_

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Iran
http://www.lucasgray.com/video/peacetrain.html

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Another view of the war. A link from Amer Jubran
http://d3130.servadmin.com/~leeflash/

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Petition: Halt the Blue Angels
http://action.globalexchange.org/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=458
http://www.care2.com/c2c/share/detail/289327

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A Girl Like Me
7:08 min
Youth Documentary
Kiri Davis, Director, Reel Works Teen Filmmaking, Producer
Winner of the Diversity Award
Sponsored by Third Millennium Foundation
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1091431409617440489

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Film/Song about Angola
http://www.prisonactivist.org/angola/

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"200 million children in the world sleep in the streets today.
Not one of them is Cuban."
(A sign in Havana)
Venceremos
View sign at bottom of page at:
http://www.cubasolidarity.net/index.html
[Thanks to Norma Harrison for sending this...bw]

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

"Cheyenne and Arapaho oral histories hammer history's account of the
Sand Creek Massacre"

CENTENNIAL, CO -- A new documentary film based on an award-winning
documentary short film, "The Sand Creek Massacre", and driven by
Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho people who tell their version about
what happened during the Sand Creek Massacre via their oral
histories, has been released by Olympus Films+, LLC, a Centennial,
Colorado film company.

"You have done an extraordinary job" said Margie Small, Tobient
Entertainment, " on the Colorado PBS episode, the library videos for
public schools and libraries, the trailer, etc...and getting the
story told and giving honor to those ancestors who had to witness
this tragic and brutal attack...film is one of the best ways."

"The images shown in the film were selected for native awareness
value" said Donald L. Vasicek, award-winning writer/filmmaker, "we
also focused on preserving American history on film because tribal
elders are dying and taking their oral histories with them. The film
shows a non-violent solution to problem-solving and 19th century
Colorado history, so it's multi-dimensional in that sense. "

Chief Eugene Blackbear, Sr., Cheyenne, who starred as Chief Black
Kettle in "The Last of the Dogmen" also starring Tom Berenger and
Barbara Hershey and "Dr. Colorado", Tom Noel, University of Colorado
history professor, are featured.

The trailer can be viewed and the film can be ordered for $24.95 plus
$4.95 for shipping and handling at http://www.fullduck.com/node/53.

Vasicek's web site, http://www.donvasicek.com, provides detailed
information about the Sand Creek Massacre including various still
images particularly on the Sand Creek Massacre home page and on the
proposal page.

Olympus Films+, LLC is dedicated to writing and producing quality
products that serve to educate others about the human condition.

Contact:

Donald L. Vasicek
Olympus Films+, LLC
7078 South Fairfax Street
Centennial, CO 80122
http://us.imdb.com/Name?Vasicek,+Don
http://www.donvasicek.com
dvasicek@earthlink.net
303-903-2103

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A NEW LOOK AT U.S. RADIOACTIVE WEAPONS
Join us in a campaign to expose and stop the use
of these illegal weapons
http://poisondust.org/

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You may enjoy watching these.
In struggle
Che:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqcezl9dD2c
Leon:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukkFVV5X0p4

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FIGHTBACK! A Collection of Socialist Essays
By Sylvia Weinstein
http://www.walterlippmann.com/sylvia-weinstein-fightback-intro.html

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[The Scab
"After God had finished the rattlesnake, the toad,
and the vampire, he had some awful substance left with
which he made a scab."
"A scab is a two-legged animal with a corkscrew soul,
a water brain, a combination backbone of jelly and glue.
Where others have hearts, he carries a tumor of rotten
principles." "When a scab comes down the street,
men turn their backs and angels weep in heaven, and
the devil shuts the gates of hell to keep him out."
"No man (or woman) has a right to scab so long as there
is a pool of water to drown his carcass in,
or a rope long enough to hang his body with.
Judas was a gentleman compared with a scab.
For betraying his master, he had character enough
to hang himself." A scab has not.
"Esau sold his birthright for a mess of pottage.
Judas sold his Savior for thirty pieces of silver.
Benedict Arnold sold his country for a promise of
a commision in the british army."
The scab sells his birthright, country, his wife,
his children and his fellowmen for an unfulfilled
promise from his employer.
Esau was a traitor to himself; Judas was a traitor
to his God; Benedict Arnold was a traitor to his country;
a scab is a traitor to his God, his country,
his family and his class."
Author --- Jack London (1876-1916)...Roland Sheppard
http://web.mac.com/rolandgarret]

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END ALL U.S. AID TO ISRAEL!
Stop funding Israel's war against Palestine
Complete the form at the website listed below with your information.
https://secure2.convio.net/pep/site/Advocacy?
JServSessionIdr003=cga2p2o6x1.app2a&cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=177

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Sand Creek Massacre
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FEATURED AT NATIVE AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL:
http://www.aberdeennews.com/mld/aberdeennews/news/local/16035305.htm
(scroll down when you get there])
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING
WRITER/FILMMAKER DONALD L. VASICEK REPORT:
http://www.digitalcinemareport.com/sandcreekmassacre.html
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FINALIST IN DOCUMENTARY CHANNEL COMPETITION (VIEW HERE):
http://www.docupyx.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=28&Itemid=41
VIEW "THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FILM MOVIE OF THE WEEK FOR FREE HERE:
http://twymancreative.com/twymanc.html

On November 29, 1864, 700 Colorado troops savagely slaughtered
over 450 Cheyenne children, disabled, elders, and women in the
southeastern Colorado Territory under its protection. This act
became known as the Sand Creek Massacre. This film project
("The Sand Creek Massacre" documentary film project) is an
examination of an open wound in the souls of the Cheyenne
people as told from their perspective. This project chronicles
that horrific 19th century event and its affect on the 21st century
struggle for respectful coexistence between white and native
plains cultures in the United States of America.

Listed below are links on which you can click to get the latest news,
products, and view, free, "THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" award-
winning documentary short. In order to create more native
awareness, particularly to save the roots of America's history,
please read the following:

Some people in America are trying to save the world. Bless
them. In the meantime, the roots of America are dying.
What happens to a plant when the roots die? The plant dies
according to my biology teacher in high school. American's
roots are its native people. Many of America's native people
are dying from drug and alcohol abuse, poverty, hunger,
and disease, which was introduced to them by the Caucasian
male. Tribal elders are dying. When they die, their oral
histories go with them. Our native's oral histories are the
essence of the roots of America, what took place before
our ancestors came over to America, what is taking place,
and what will be taking place. It is time we replenish
America's roots with native awareness, else America
continues its decaying, and ultimately, its death.

You can help. The 22-MINUTE SAND CREEK MASSACRE
DOCUMENTARY PRESENTATION/EDUCATIONAL DVD IS
READY FOR PURCHASE! (pass the word about this powerful
educational tool to friends, family, schools, parents, teachers,
and other related people and organizations to contact
me (dvasicek@earthlink.net, 303-903-2103) for information
about how they can purchase the DVD and have me come
to their children's school to show the film and to interact
in a questions and answers discussion about the Sand
Creek Massacre.

Happy Holidays!

Donald L. Vasicek
Olympus Films+, LLC
http://us.imdb.com/Name?Vasicek,+Don
http://www.donvasicek.com
dvasicek@earthlink.net
303-903-2103

"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FEATURED AT NATIVE AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL:
http://www.aberdeennews.com/mld/aberdeennews/news/local/16035305.htm
(scroll down when you get there])
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING
WRITER/FILMMAKER DONALD L. VASICEK REPORT:
http://www.digitalcinemareport.com/sandcreekmassacre.html
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FINALIST IN DOCUMENTARY CHANNEL COMPETITION (VIEW HERE):
http://www.docupyx.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=28&Itemid=41
VIEW "THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FILM MOVIE OF THE WEEK FOR FREE HERE:
http://twymancreative.com/twymanc.html

SHOP:
http://www.manataka.org/page633.html
BuyIndies.com
donvasicek.com.