May 01 2008
May Day Message from the Port Workers in Iraq to West Coast dock workers in the U.S.
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.
SNIP
Read The Rest at Link!
Apr 30 2008
cross posted from The Dream Antilles
On May 1, 2003, exactly 5 years ago, President Bush stood on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln to mark the end of major combat operations in Iraq:
Thank you all very much. Admiral Kelly, Captain Card (ph), officers and sailors of the USS Abraham Lincoln, my fellow Americans, major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed.
More than 4,000 US troops have now died in Iraq, more than 97% after the President’s speech. The number of injured US troops and injured and killed Iraqi men, women, and children follows the same relationship: the vast majority of the casualties occurred after the “major combat operations in Iraq [ ] ended.”
Think Progress reports:
Today (4/30/08), reporter Helen Thomas asked White House Press Secretary Dana Perino how the president would “commemorate” the date tomorrow. Perino said the White House had “certainly paid a price for not being more specific on that banner”:
PERINO: President Bush is well aware that the banner should have been much more specific, and said, Mission Accomplished For These Sailors Who Are On This Ship On Their Mission. And we have certainly paid a price for not being more specific on that banner. And I recognize that the media is going to play this up again tomorrow, as they do every single year.
Does the White House seriously think we’re so stupid as to believe that Bush wasn’t really talking about the end of hostilities in Iraq? that he was talking about something else? Think Progress points out:
Just a month after his speech on the U.S.S. Lincoln, he also spoke to troops in Qatar: “America sent you on a mission to remove a grave threat and to liberate an oppressed people, and that mission has been accomplished.”
Chalk that up as just one more reason why on May 1, 2008, I’m not working and why I’m participating in a one-day General Strike.
Need other reasons? How about torture, Gitmo, illegal extraditions, secret renditions, $3.67/gallon gasoline, sub prime mortgages, lack of universal health care, the recession, and on and on and on. You could make your own list. You could write an essay that was just a list. It would go on and on and on. It’s not necessary to do that.
I’m striking. Please join me.
Apr 23 2008
Common Cause released a press release a few days ago (April 15, 2008) showing how the GOP Leadership in the House, at the instigation of the White House, derailed the “Emergency Assistance for Secure elections Act of 2008” which had been under consideration and being honed for a year.
After a year of consideration, the House today unexpectedly failed to pass in a streamlined process a bill that would have authorized funding for states to replace paperless electronic voting machines in time for the presidential election in November.
…snip…
At stake is the Emergency Assistance for Secure elections Act of 2008. The bill had been placed on the House “suspension” calendar, meaning it needed two-thirds support to pass. Democrats and Republicans last week had reached agreement and passage was expected today {4/15/08}.
Then the White House at the eleventh hour issued a statement urging the House to vote against the bill. And, in an unexpected move, Rep Vern Ehlers (R-MI), the ranking memeber of the House Administration Committee, and Rep Roy Blunt (R-MO), the minority whip, also came out against the bill.
Another Repug coup to insure that they can again steal the next election, the 2008 election. I am afraid because if we don’t take this country back soon, there will be no country to take back. It will be like what any aware Germans were up against in 1939.
I am horrified. Stop this madness. Into the Streets. General Strike. Refuse to go along.
I’m mad as Hell and I not going to take this anymore.
Into the Streets for the General Strike on May Day, and stay there. Do not be complicit.
Apr 20 2008
The first part of this post is especially directed towards those, the greater majority of this country, who do not have any Direct Connection to the Ongoing Occupation Theaters of Iraq and Afganistan, certainly not the Connection of those Serving, Mutiple Tours, and their Families and Close Friends !
The second part will be a Shoutout, and partial repost, with updated information, to All !
Apr 15 2008
MAKE MAYDAY A “NO PEACE, NO WORK HOLIDAY”!
The following was written by Jack Heyman a longshoreman who works on the Oakland docks
Longshoremen to close ports on West Coast to protest war
Apr 07 2008
Reminder more or less that May 1 is the International Worker’s Day and early American labor rights protesters initiated it. It’s an American tradition – not a Communist tradition. And it’s a pagan tradition from the dawn of time.
I hope you all had a great May Day. As I post this it’s still May 1 from the CDT zone westward. For those who saw the original post, you can just skip it or get refreshed. For those who haven’t seen it, it has some interesting background on the history of the day.
Herewith, a recycled essay:
May 1.
A lot of Americans have apparently been brainwashed during their formative years. Especially the crowd over at the site that shall not be named. The vast majority associate the first day of the month of May as a Soviet Communist celebration day. Then again a sizable number of Uhmericans think Saddam Hussein was complicit in the 9/11 atrocities. Oh, and the wiretapping started after 9/11 and not like late February or early March of 2001.
May first was a holiday before there was a May. It’s a cross-quarter day. That means it falls about halfway between a solstice and an equinox. Back before keyboards, laser mice and high-speed internet connections people used to notice these things. The only thing that emitted light, besides fire, was in the sky. You can check out the sky anytime. Just click here. Cool, huh? And you didn’t have to let go of your mouse to do it.
So back in the days of stone knives and bearskins, and I’m not talking about the Star Trek episode where Spock and McCoy have to build a time-machine thingie with 1930s tech, or even the dark ages of eight bit processors, RAM limits of 65536 bytes and machine code, I’m talking real stone and real bear. Hell, sabre-tooth tiger and wooly mammoth times. Back when chipped flint was high-tech. In the time of neo-pagans (not to be confused with the neopaganists of today).
Together with the solstices and equinoxes (Yule, Ostara, Midsummer, and Mabon), these form the eight solar holidays in the neopagan wheel of the year. They are often celebrated on the evening before the listed date, since traditionally the new day was considered to begin at sunset rather than at midnight.
Festival name Date Sun’s Position
Samhain 1 Nov (alt. 5-10 Nov) ? 15° ?
Imbolc 2 Feb (alt. 2-7 Feb) ? 15° ?
Beltane 1 May (alt. 4-10 May) ? 15° ?
Lughnasadh 1 Aug (alt. 3-10 Aug) ? 15° ?There are Christian and secular holidays that correspond roughly with each of these four, and some argue that historically they originated as adaptations of the pagan holidays, although the matter is not agreed upon. The corresponding holidays are:
* St.Brigids Day (1 Feb), Groundhog Day (2 Feb), and Candlemas (2 or 15 Feb)
* Walpurgis Night (30 Apr) and May Day (1 May)
* Lammas (1 Aug)
* Halloween (31 Oct), All Saints (1 Nov), and All Souls’ Day (2 Nov)Groundhog Day is celebrated in North America. It is said that if a groundhog comes out of his hole on 2 February and sees his shadow (that is, if the weather is good), there will be six more weeks of winter. February 2nd marks the end of the short days of winter. Because average temperatures lag behind day length by several weeks, it is (hopefully) the beginning of the end of winter cold.
It’s been Groundhog Day in Iraq for five years now. But who’s counting?
There’s more: