Woke-Up into the Sunday Clouds

The Crap-O-Day in America !!!

Protesters gathering at the Wisconsin Capitol in record numbers on March 12, 2011. (Photo: TopritzBuchananHofer)

Assault on Collective Bargaining Illegal, Says International Labor Rights Group
Sunday 13 March 2011
by: Jeanne Mirer and Marjorie Cohn, t r u t h o u t | News Analysis

The International Commission for Labor Rights (ICLR) sent a notice to the Wisconsin Legislature, explaining that its attempt to strip collective bargaining rights from public workers is illegal.

Anyone who has watched the events unfolding in Wisconsin and other states that are trying to remove collective bargaining rights from public workers has heard people protesting the loss of their "rights." (For more on the record turnout, see this story.) The ICLR explained to the legislature exactly what these rights are and why trying to take them away is illegal.

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Madison Rally Bigger Than Biggest Tea Party Rally

Saturday 12 March 2011

by: Alex Seitz-Wald | ThinkProgress | Report

Police estimated up to 100,000 people turned out in Madison, WI yesterday to protest Gov. Scott Walker's (R) assault on unions, making it bigger than any protests the city has witnessed, even those during the Vietnam War. The Madison rally is part of a much larger Main Street Movement of average Americans demanding fairness in labor laws, social spending, and taxation that has emerged in Ohio, New Jersey, Florida,Michigan, and elsewhere. But yesterday's rally in Madison is noteworthy because at 85,000-100,000, it was bigger than the biggest tea party protest, the September 12, 2009 rally in Washington, D.C., which turned out only an estimated 60,000-70,000. A photo of the Madison rally yesterday:

For two years, tea party activists and their allies in the GOP have claimed that the hard-right movement represents the true beliefs of the American people. But the crowd in Madison and numerous polls tell a different story.

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Julian Assange, the founder of the WikiLeaks anti-secrecy group, speaks to the press. (Photo: Andrew Testa / The New York Times)

How the So-Called Guardians of Free Speech Are Silencing the Messenger
Saturday 12 March 2011
by: John Pilger, t r u t h o u t | News Analysis

John Pilger | How the So-Called Guardians of Free Speech Are Silencing the Messenger
John Pilger, Truthout: "As the United States and Britain look for an excuse to invade another oil-rich Arab country, the hypocrisy is familiar. Colonel Gaddafi is 'delusional' and 'blood-drenched' while the authors of an invasion that killed a million Iraqis, who have kidnapped and tortured in our name, are entirely sane, never blood-drenched and once again the arbiters of 'stability.' But something has changed. Reality is no longer what the powerful say it is. Of all the spectacular revolts across the world, the most exciting is the insurrection of knowledge sparked by WikiLeaks."

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the Crap-O-GOP-Crappiest-Crap !!!

Severely damaged boats are seen in the Keehi Small Boat harbor, Friday, March 11, 2011 in Honolulu. A tsunami generated by the Japan earthquake hit Oahu causing damage around the island. The harbor's piers and many boats were severely damaged by the tsunami. Many boats were freely floating in the harbor. Several were sinking. (AP Photo - Marco Garcia)

GOP budget targets agency that warned of tsunami
BY MATTHEW DALY

From Associated Press

March 11, 2011 11:32 PM EST

WASHINGTON (AP) — A spending plan being pushed by Republicans would slash funding for the agency that warned Hawaii and the West Coast about the devastating tsunami in Japan.

The plan, approved last month by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, would trigger an estimated $126 million in cuts for the National Weather Service, the agency that houses the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii. The center issued widespread warnings minutes after Friday's earthquake and issued guidance and updates throughout the day.

(Read the Full Story)

March of 2011! Where To?

Gov. Scott Walker (R-Wisconsin) is under fire for his budget proposal that eliminates collective bargaining rights for public sector union workers. (Image: Lance Page / t r u t h o u t; Adapted: Megan McCormick / Flickr)

Then They Came for the Trade Unionists
Thursday 10 March 2011
by: William Rivers Pitt, t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed

William Rivers Pitt, Truthout: "On this day, it behooves us to remember the words of Martin Niemoller. 'First they came for the communists,' he wrote, 'and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me.' I am a trade unionist, and yesterday in Wisconsin, they came for me."

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The Cairo-Madison Connection
Wednesday 09 March 2011
by: Noam Chomsky, Op-Ed

Thousands of protesters rally late into the night at Tahrir Square in Cairo,

on January 25, 2011. (Photo: Scott Nelson / The New York Times) -->

Noam Chomsky: "On Feb. 20, Kamal Abbas, Egyptian union leader and prominent figure in the Jan. 25 movement, sent a message to the 'workers of Wisconsin': 'We stand with you as you stood with us.' Egyptian workers have long fought for fundamental rights denied by the U.S.-backed Hosni Mubarak regime. Kamal is right to invoke the solidarity that has long been the driving force of the labor movement worldwide, and to compare their struggles for labor rights and democracy."

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raining down by the sunset grill

The Crap-O-Day: from Da Crappy American History !!!

Michael Moore Speaks in Wisconsin, March 5, 2011

Michael Moore, MichaelMoore.com: "America is not broke. Contrary to what those in power would like you to believe so that you'll give up your pension, cut your wages, and settle for the life your great-grandparents had, America is not broke. Not by a long shot. The country is awash in wealth and cash. It's just that it's not in your hands. It has been transferred, in the greatest heist in history, from the workers and consumers to the banks and the portfolios of the uber-rich."

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sunday: who stopped the rain?

Tunisian Protests Move Hillary's Line on Democratic Reform
Sunday 16 January 2011
by: Robert Naiman, t r u t h o u t | News Analysis

Photo: Protest outside Tunisian Embassy, January 14, 2011, by Collin David Anderson

Back in 1969, when Secretary of State Clinton was researching her senior thesis at Wellesley on Chicago community organizer Saul Alinsky, she likely come across this saying of Alinksy's, which you can find in his book"Rules for Radicals":

Revolution by the Have-Nots has a way of inducing a moral revelation among the Haves.

Thursday, Secretary Clinton delivered what the New York Times called a "scalding critique" to Arab leaders at a conference in Qatar.

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