April 2008

Homeland Security Plans “Terrorist” & Disaster Drills Beginning May First

April 30, 2008 by Frank Gormlie

Beginning May 1, and continuing for the rest of that week, the Department of Homeland Security is planning to undertake nation-wide terrorist and natural disaster drills. See for yourself, go to FEMA’s website, here.

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May Day Is Our Workers’ Day in America

April 30, 2008 by Staff
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May Day was officially founded in 1886, during a Chicago strike for the eight-hour workday. In 1889, the American Federation of Labor (AFL) delegate to the International Labor Congress in Paris proposed May 1 as international Labor Day. Workers were to march for an eight-hour day, democracy and the right of workers to organize. Delegates approved the request and chose May 1, 1890, as a day of demonstrations in favor of the eight-hour day.

On a separate track, U.S. labor leaders had agitated for creation of a labor holiday years before the Chicago rally. Among them, Peter J. McGuire, a carpenter and labor union leader, had proposed his idea for a holiday honoring America’s workers at a New York labor meeting in early 1882. (Others say the “founder” of Labor Day was Matthew Maguire, a machinist who served as secretary of the Central Labor Union in New York.)”

History of May Day Bound Up In the 8-Hour Work Day Movement and the Martyrs of the “Haymarket Massacre”

The story of the Haymarket Martyrs, and their monument in Forest Home Cemetery, begins at a convention of the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions in 1884. The Federation (the predecessor to the American Federation of Labor) called for a great movement to win the 8-hour workday, which would climax on May 1, 1886.

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A Litany of Horrors – America’s University of Imperialism

April 29, 2008 by Staff

Book Review of Soldiers of Reason: The RAND Corporation and the Rise of the American Empire by Alex Abella By Chalmers Johnson The RAND Corporation of Santa Monica, California, was set up immediately after World War II by the U.S. Army Air Corps (soon to become the U.S. Air Force). The Air Force generals who […]

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The Slavery of Immigrants in Florida

April 28, 2008 by Richard Nadeau

I just finished watching a CNN video (April 28, 2008) [see below] on the slave labor conditions of immigrants working in Florida. Investigators say migrant workers enslaved in Florida have every movement controlled, and that they are not allowed to leave the space provided by the employer when they are done working. In other words, […]

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1,000 Vets a Month Attempt Suicide

April 28, 2008 by Staff

An email intercepted by CBS News shows that the VA’s head of Mental Health has knowingly lied to the public, repeatedly. (SALEM, Ore.) – The number of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans attempting to commit suicide today in the United States is about 1,000 a month, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs’ head of […]

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There Are 18.6 Million Empty Homes In America

April 28, 2008 by Frank Gormlie

Today Reuters reported that due to the sub-prime mortgage crisis and the dramatic rise in foreclosures of owner-occupied housing, America now has a record number of vacant homes across the country – for the first quarter of this year. In discussing the rise in the share of vacant homes, the Reuters article, by Joanne Morrison, […]

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Compassion: The First Casualty of War

April 26, 2008 by Richard Nadeau

It has often been said that “truth is the first casualty of war.” But there is another immediate casualty -compassion. In fact, compassion may even be the first casualty. Once the war machine has geared up, the propaganda disseminated, hatred of an enemy proclaimed, a culture of malice becomes a necessary ingredient. The enemy must […]

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U.S. Weighing Readiness for Military Action Against Iran

April 26, 2008 by Staff

By Ann Scott Tyson / Washington Post Staff Writer / Saturday, April 26, 2008 The nation’s top military officer said yesterday that the Pentagon is planning for “potential military courses of action” as one of several options against Iran, criticizing what he called the Tehran government’s “increasingly lethal and malign influence” in Iraq. Adm. Michael […]

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Steve Francis meets with medical cannabis group

April 26, 2008 by Staff

 by Marc On Wednesday night Steve and Gayle Francis took time out of their busy schedule to speak with members of Hope Unlimited, a local support group for medical cannabis patients. Gayle spoke to the group about her work in healthcare and her website www.KeepComingBack.com, a place for those in recovery to connect and share […]

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The Great Peace Movement Debate

April 25, 2008 by Staff

Since late 2007, the OB Rag has sponsored a seasoned and reasoned debate about the current state and future direction of the peace movement – not only here in San Diego, but across the nation. In light of the series of national protests held recently, we decided to post the original articles that were published […]

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A Constitutional Conundrum

April 24, 2008 by Staff

News: The House Judiciary Committee has taken its contempt of Congress fight to civil court, setting the stage for a legal battle that could redefine executive and congressional power. By Brian Beutler / The Media Consortium / April 24, 2008 Overshadowed by a heated presidential-election battle and daily news of a sinking economy, a lawsuit […]

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The Real Matrix: The Pentagon Invades Your Life

April 24, 2008 by Staff

By Nick Turse Rick is a midlevel manager in a financial services company in New York City. Each day he commutes from Weehawken, New Jersey, a suburb only a stone’s throw from the Big Apple, where he lives with his wife, Donna, and his teenage son, Steven. A late baby boomer, Rick just missed the […]

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Historians Rate Bush’s Presidency As “the worst ever”

April 23, 2008 by Staff

61% of Historians Rate Bush As the Worst President In American History In early April, the same week a Pew Research Center poll found that the American public approval rating of President George W. Bush had dropped to a new low of 28 percent, a poll of professional historians had even worst results. An informal […]

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2,000 Students Protest Budget Cuts In Sacramento

April 23, 2008 by Staff

More than 2,000 students from all three segments of the state’s higher education system – CSU, UC and community colleges – gathered in Sacramento on Monday, April 21, to protest the governor’s proposed plan to cut more than a billion dollars from higher education from the state budget. The coalition of students marched from Raley […]

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1,000 More Pink Slips to Be Sent Out

April 23, 2008 by Staff

SAN DIEGO, CA. The San Diego School Board voted tonight to issue more than 1,000 pink slips to non-teacher staff. [Go here for more.]

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2,000 Teachers Rally Against “the pink slip”

April 22, 2008 by Frank Gormlie

Demonstrators Ask School Board to Rescind 900+ Pink Slips SAN DIEGO, CA. Hundreds of school teachers rallied this afternoon in front of the Ed Center demanding that the School Board rescind the issuance of over 900 pink slips sent out to teachers district wide. Estimates from 1200 up to 2,000 – mainly teachers – gathered […]

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Party Like It’s 1932: The Obama Option

April 22, 2008 by Staff

by Norman Solomon Seventy-six years ago, to many ears on the left, Franklin D. Roosevelt sounded way too much like a centrist. True, he was eloquent, and he’d generated enthusiasm in a Democratic base eager to evict Republicans from the White House. But his campaign was moderate – with policy proposals that didn’t indicate he […]

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The Left Has Lost Its Nerve and Its Direction

April 22, 2008 by Staff

by Chris Hedges / April 21, 2008 by the Philadelphia Inquirer The failure of the American left is a failure of nerve. It has been neutralized and rendered ineffectual as a political force because of its refusal to hold fast on core issues, from universal, single-payer, not-for-profit health care for all Americans, to the steadfast […]

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Blackwater To Open Indoor Site In Otay Mesa

April 22, 2008 by Staff

By Anne Krueger / UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER / April 22, 2008 Blackwater Worldwide is planning to open an indoor training facility in Otay Mesa after abandoning a controversial proposal to build a training center for law enforcement and the military on an East County chicken ranch. Brian Bonfiglio, a Blackwater vice president, confirmed the facility […]

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The Man Who Would Be Bush

April 21, 2008 by Staff

How do we explain voter support for McCain in light of the nation’s widespread, bipartisan rejection of the Bush administration? by Robert Scheer / Truthdig.com / Apr. 16, 2008 Are Americans unusually stupid or is it something our president put in the water? As millions surrender their homes and sacrifice other standards of our nation’s […]

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The Military “Expert”: How the Pentagon Manipulated the Media For War

April 21, 2008 by Staff

By Robert Parry Consortium News 4/21/08 After prying loose 8,000 pages of Pentagon documents, the New York Times has proven what should have been obvious years ago: the Bush administration manipulated public opinion on the Iraq War, in part, by funneling propaganda through former senior military officers who served as expert analysts on TV news […]

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US Military Forced to Recruit Felons For Duty in Iraq

April 21, 2008 by Staff

Associated Press/ April 21, 2008 WASHINGTON – . Under pressure to meet combat needs, the Army and Marine Corps brought in significantly more recruits with felony convictions last year than in 2006, including some with manslaughter and sex crime convictions.Data released by a congressional committee shows the number of soldiers admitted to the Army with […]

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José Can You See? Bush’s Trojan Taco

April 21, 2008 by Staff

Bush Using NAFTA to Eliminate Laws on Health, Safety, Labor, Environment By Greg Palast Psst! George Bush has a secret. While you Democrats are pounding each other to a pulp in Pennsylvania, the President has snuck back down to New Orleans for a meeting of the NAFTA Three: the Prime Minister of Canada and the […]

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U.S. deserters seek Canadian residency

April 21, 2008 by Staff

TORONTO, April 20 (UPI) — About 200 U.S. military deserters in Canada are awaiting a decision as to whether they can take permanent residency there, a group says.The Buffalo (N.Y.) News reported Sunday a resolution before the Canadian House of Commons would allow deserters, including Patrick Hart, to seek residency there. “This is home for […]

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Anti-China protests made in USA, not Tibet

April 21, 2008 by Staff

By Gary Wilson / Published Apr 20, 2008 Most noteworthy about the protests in London, Paris and San Francisco that targeted the Olympic Torch on its way to the Beijing Olympics was their character. Take the events in San Francisco on April 9. The biggest numbers to turn out were not protesters. They were from […]

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12 Reasons to Get Out of Iraq

April 20, 2008 by Staff

Unraveling Iraq: 12 Answers to Questions No One Is Bothering to Ask about Iraq By Tom Engelhardt / TomDispatch.com / posted April 20, 2008 Can there be any question that, since the invasion of 2003, Iraq has been unraveling? And here’s the curious thing: Despite a lack of decent information and analysis on crucial aspects […]

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San Diego County Teachers & Supporters Rally to Protest Education Cuts

April 19, 2008 by Frank Gormlie

SAN DIEGO, CA. Teachers, students and their supporters gathered this morning in Balboa Park and marched to the California State Building in downtown San Diego in a protest against proposed education budget cuts. At around 9:30 Saturday morning, hundreds of people met at the intersection of Park Avenue and Presidential Way, then marched down Park […]

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War and opinions collide at Palm Springs peace vigil

April 19, 2008 by Staff

[Ed.: The nation-wide antiwar demonstrations held on March 19th also included Palm Springs, where the following report says 100 antiwar demonstrators appeared. Only a half dozen counter-protesters appeared. Another vigil is planned for today, Sat., Apr. 19th.] By Julia Glick / The Press-Enterprise / April 15, 2008 Two groups of Vietnam-era veterans squared off at […]

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Venezuela : Democracy, Socialism and Imperialism

April 19, 2008 by Staff

by Prof. James Petras /Global Research, April 17, 2008 Introduction Venezuela ‘s President Hugo Chavez remains the world’s leading secular, democratically elected political leader who has consistently and publicly opposed imperialist wars in the Middle East , attacked extra-territorial intervention and US and European Union complicity in kidnapping and torture. Venezuela plays the major role […]

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Rally and March to Reverse Budget Cuts to Education

April 18, 2008 by Patty Jones

Teachers and staff in San Diego schools are trying to get the word out to the general public, the government, and the media just how devastating the proposed budget cuts will be to the education of all children in California’s public schools and universities. It is their goal to have the California legislature and the […]

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