Why Are Things As They Are?

We Say Fight Back!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=4A0hdq87cOc&feature=youtu.be

Where is Bull Connor when the UC Regents So Do Need Him? UC Riverside police detained three people during protests Thursday, Jan. 19, outside the UC Board of Regents meeting taking place on campus. One protester was released without charge. Two were arrested and booked on suspicion of felony assault on a police officer: Kenneth Ehrlich, 39, of Los Angeles, and Humberto Rivera, 25, of Corona.
UCR Chief of Police Mike Lane estimated the number of protesters at between 300 and 500 people, but the crowds were difficult to estimate because a number of students were observing and following but not actively participating. After protesters blocked entrances to the meeting, police issued several orders for the crowd to disperse.
Elsewhere, a UCR police officer fired pellets toward protesters who were trying to break through police lines. These are hard plastic pellets that are similar in force to a paintball. Officers from the University of California Police Department (UCPD) used batons at different times and locations in response to aggressive action by the protesters. The department is attempting to identify and contact anyone who was injured.    http://newsroom.ucr.edu/2840

Hawaii Teachers Reject Sellout Public school teachers have voted overwhelmingly against a six-year contract that proposed the transition to performance-based raises starting in July 2013.
Sixty-seven percent of teachers voted against the contract, the Hawaii State Teachers Association announced tonight.    http://www.staradvertiser.com/news/breaking/137739018.html

Nigerian Direct Action Reverses Government Gas Attack Faced down by thousands of demonstrators, demands for his removal and a weeklong general strike that paralyzed his fractious country, President Goodluck Jonathan abruptly gave in, partly restoring the fuel subsidy that — more than an Islamic insurgency in the north or a long-running conflict in the south — seemed to crystallize the frustrations of the people and draw them to the streets in outrage.   www.nytimes.com/2012/01/17/world/africa/nigerian-president-rolls-back-price-of-gasoline.html?emc=tnt&tntemail0=y

Berkeley Library Occupied A group of 70 demonstrators occupied the anthropology library at Kroeber Hall Thursday evening as the Occupy Cal movement marked the start of the spring semester.
A “study-in” action at Kroeber Hall began at around 3 p.m., and continued past the library’s new 5 p.m. closing time as demonstrators reiterated their determination to occupy the library through the night.
As the protest got under way, anthropology department chair Terrence Deacon read aloud a statement which informed demonstrators that permission had not been granted for them to remain in the library after closing. The statement went on to advise the demonstrators that anyone who remained in the library would be in violation of university rules and subject to disciplinary action.
“The faculty and I have monitored the Occupy group all night,” said Deacon. “They have been respectful and quite appreciative of our effort to make this a constructive interaction.”    http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2012/01/20/occupy-cal-stages-study-in-at-kroeber-hall/

Judge Orders Eviction of Occupy London An Occupy London protest camp that has sprawled outside the city’s St. Paul’s Cathedral for three months must be removed, a British judge ruled Wednesday.    http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/story/2012-01-18/occupy-london-evicted/52635964/1

The Little Red Schoolhouse

A Reminder from 1963—James Baldwin Talks to Teachers Since I am talking to schoolteachers and I am not a teacher myself, and in some ways am fairly easily intimidated, I beg you to let me leave that and go back to what I think to be the entire purpose of education in the first place. It would seem to me that when a child is born, if I’m the child’s parent, it is my obligation and my high duty to civilize that child. Man is a social animal. He cannot exist without a society. A society, in turn, depends on certain things which everyone within that society takes for granted. Now the crucial paradox which confronts us here is that the whole process of education occurs within a social framework and is designed to perpetuate the aims of society.

Thus, for example, the boys and girls who were born during the era of the Third Reich, when educated to the purposes of the Third Reich, became barbarians. The paradox of education is precisely this – that as one begins to become conscious one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated. The purpose of education, finally, is to create in a person the ability to look at the world for himself, to make his own decisions, to say to himself this is black or this is white, to decide for himself whether there is a God in heaven or not. To ask questions of the universe, and then learn to live with those questions, is the way he achieves his own identity.

But no society is really anxious to have that kind of person around. What societies really, ideally, want is a citizenry which will simply obey the rules of society. If a society succeeds in this, that society is about to perish. The obligation of anyone who thinks of himself as responsible is to examine society and try to change it and to fight it – at no matter what risk. This is the only hope society has. This is the only way societies change.   richgibson.com/talktoteachers.htm

Tucson Bans Freire, Rethinking Columbus, and More: The decision to ban books follows the 4 to 1 vote on Tuesday by the Tucson Unified School District board to succumb to the State of Arizona, and forbid Mexican American Studies, rather than fight the state decision.    http://narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/brenda-norrell/2012/01/tucson-schools-bans-books-chicano-and-native-american-authors

Tucson Claims Books Not Banned, Just Stored….ah….somewhere Tucson Unified School District officials are denying news reports that the district has banned seven books that were used in the controversial Mexican American studies program it dismantled last week.
In a statement Tuesday, TUSD spokeswoman Cara Rene wrote that the books were not banned. They are still available to students through their school libraries, she wrote.
“The books… have been moved to the district storage facility because the classes have been suspended as per the ruling by Arizona Superintendent (of) Public Instruction John Huppenthal,” Rene wrote.www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2012/01/17/20120117tucson-district-denies-ban-mexican-american-books.html

Petition to Restore Mexican American Studies in AZ action.nclr.org/p/salsa/web/tellafriend/public/?tell_a_friend_KEY=8318

Grinding Down California Higher Ed: Were it not for the financial aid that helps cover the cost of his tuition, it is unlikely that Devonte Jackson would be able to attend UC Berkeley.
The political science major has two campus jobs, but his $12,000 state-paid Cal Grant is the glue that holds his education dreams together. Tuition, books, housing and other fees top $31,000 annually.
But Cal Grants could become much harder to obtain for new students under restrictions proposed by Gov. Jerry Brown as part of his 2012-13 budget. One of the most contentious of them would increase the minimum grade point average needed to qualify for the two types of awards, which are merit- and income-based and are a key part of the financial aid package for many low- and middle-income students.
Cal Grant “A” currently covers tuition up to $5,472 at Cal State universities, up to $12,192 at the University of California and up to $9,708 toward tuition and fees at private colleges.     www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-cal-grant-20120115,0,2436169.story

The Big Cheats Want to Know how to Corral the Little Ones The Education Department wants the public’s input to develop guidelines to prevent and detect cheating. The effort comes after several cheating scandals involving teachers.
The department is accepting opinions until Feb. 16. It says it will use them to create recommendations to be distributed to states, local school districts and testing organizations.    http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-bc-us–education-cheating,0,2754134.story

Funds Repaid in Atlanta’s Vast Cheating Scandal Officials say the school district in Atlanta has agreed to repay more than $363,000 in federal money the district won by teachers and administrators cheating.
State schools Superintendent John Barge told The Associated Press on Friday that the district has 90 days to return the money.
A state investigation in July revealed widespread cheating by educators in nearly half of the Atlanta’s 100 schools dating back to 2001. In all, nearly 180 teachers and principals were accused of giving answers to students or changing answers once the tests had been completed.   www.bellinghamherald.com/2012/01/20/2358857/apnewsbreak-atlanta-to-repay-363k.html

Detroit EFM Continues to Appoint Bosses of Failed Government Motors to Run Schools Emergency Manager Roy Roberts announced five appointments Thursday in Detroit Public Schools as part of the district’s reorganization.

The new appointments are in academics, the district’s bond program and risk management for DPS, the state’s largest school district, which has been run by an emergency manager since 2009.

Two appointees are taking over positions held by Karen Ridgeway, who became DPS superintendent for academics in November. Two other appointees are former employees of General Motors, where Roberts was a top executive before retiring and accepting the job at DPS last May.    http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20120120/SCHOOLS/201200354/1026/schools/Roberts-makes-five-appointments-DPS-shake-up

San Diego District Continues to Coverup PR Fees (among other scandals in these SoCal Capitalist schools) After some fanfare, the Sweetwater board of education in May decided to get to the bottom of suspicious public-relations invoices submitted to the district by commissioning an independent review.

Eight months later, the report is finished. The district, however, has declined several requests to release it. Because the $15,000 report was compiled by a lawyer, Superintendent Ed Brand is citing attorney-client privilege.

The report was a response to an April 28 report in The Watchdog about PR professional Scott Alevy. His $250-an-hour bills to the district, through its law firm, mentioned meetings with people who, when contacted, said the meetings didn’t happen or were not as described.     www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/jan/19/sweetwater-withholds-report/

LA Times–Keep the Test Hysteria Blooming There are plenty of problems with the school reform movement, but the number of standardized tests isn’t one of them. The tests are still the most objective and affordable yardsticks of achievement available. They should be improved and the results should be kept in perspective, but there is no evidence that cutting back on them — as Gov. Jerry Brown has proposed — will improve education.    http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-test-20120120,0,5177135.story?track=rss

The International Hot War of the Rich on the Poor

Two of the Many Empires Lining up for War Since Napoleon invaded Egypt in 1798, France and Turkey have competed for dominance in the Middle East. France’s rise as a Mediterranean power has been an inverse function of Turkish decline around the same sea. As the Ottoman Empire gradually collapsed, France acquired Algeria, Tunisia and, temporarily, Egypt. The French took one final bite from the dying empire by securing control over Syria and Lebanon after World War I.
This rivalry subsided in the 20th century, when Turkey became an inward-looking nation state. During the era of decolonization, France lost political control of lands extending from Morocco in the west to Syria in the east. Paris, however, maintained economic and political clout in the region by supporting large French businesses, which established lucrative ties with the region’s rulers. Even Turkey once looked to France as a model: when Mustafa Kemal Ataturk founded modern Turkey in 1923, he championed the French model of hard secularism, which stipulates freedom from religion in government, politics and education.   www.nytimes.com/2012/01/15/opinion/sunday/the-empires-strike-back.html?hpw

Council on Foreign Relations Nuke Specialist says “Bomb Bomb Bomb, Bomb Bomb Iran” But skeptics of military action fail to appreciate the true danger that a nuclear-armed Iran would pose to U.S. interests in the Middle East and beyond. And their grim forecasts assume that the cure would be worse than the disease — that is, that the consequences of a U.S. assault on Iran would be as bad as or worse than those of Iran achieving its nuclear ambitions. But that is a faulty assumption. The truth is that a military strike intended to destroy Iran’s nuclear program, if managed carefully, could spare the region and the world a very real threat and dramatically improve the long-term national security of the United States.     www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/136917/matthew-kroenig/time-to-attack-iran#

Afghan Soldiers Step up Nato Killings American and other coalition forces here are being killed in increasing numbers by the very Afghan soldiers they fight alongside and train, in attacks motivated by deep-seated animosity between the supposedly allied forces, according to American and Afghan officers and a classified coalition report.    A decade into the war in Afghanistan, the report makes clear that these killings have become the most visible symptom of a far deeper ailment plaguing the war effort: the contempt each side holds for the other, never mind the Taliban. The ill will and mistrust run deep among civilians and militaries on both sides, raising questions about what future role the United States and its allies can expect to play in Afghanistan.    http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/20/world/asia/afghan-soldiers-step-up-killings-of-allied-forces.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha2

With 4 More Dead, France Considers So Long to Nato in Afghanistan The killings are intended to sap Western morale and hasten the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan sooner than an agreed NATO deadline of the end of 2014, when Afghan forces are supposed to be ready to defend the country on their own. A rising number of the attacks have also been born of simmering animosity between coalition forces and the Afghan soldiers they fight alongside and train.
With many European countries facing unprecedented economic pressures at home, such attacks by Afghan soldiers on foreign troops have added to public questioning of the value of continued involvement in Afghanistan. If France were to reduce its troops early or precipitously, it could spur other countries to follow suit, Western and Afghan officials warned.      http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/21/world/europe/sarkozy-weighs-afghan-withdrawal-after-4-french-troops-killed.html?ref=global-home

Hakimullah Mehsud Reported Killed, Again Intercepted militant radio communications indicate the leader of the Pakistani Taliban may have been killed in a recent U.S. drone strike, Pakistani intelligence officials said Sunday. A Taliban official denied that.  (but the Taliban Says No)   www.nydailynews.com/news/world/pakistani-taliban-leader-hakimullah-mehsud-killed-u-s-drone-attack-report-article-1.1006912

Chinese Social Fascists Continue Arrests of Dissenters The Chinese authorities have charged another veteran human rights activist with attempting to subvert the state, the latest in a series of indictments or trials of well-known dissidents this year that have drawn unusually stiff prison sentences and widespread condemnation abroad.   www.nytimes.com/2012/01/18/world/asia/china-continues-arrests-of-prominent-dissidents.html?_r=1&ref=global-home

Can Maoite Nepal Stop Exporting Gurkha Mercs? People who want to quickly write an epitaph of the Gurkha legacy contend that it’s a scar on the country’s sovereign and independent status.
To them, the tradition that began in 1815 is an example of a great anomaly, and must be put to an end in the “new”, post-monarchy Nepal.
Their views are reflected in a report adopted – unanimously – recently by an all-party parliamentary committee that is dominated by Maoist legislators.
This has attracted considerable media attention, with many newspaper articles and radio/television talk shows concluding that Nepal should cease to be seen as a country that exports “mercenaries”.    The allusion primarily is to Britain, which maintains a brigade of Gurkhas, and India, which has a far bigger contingent of Gorkhas – as called in that country – in its national army.
“Gurkha recruitment gave the youth a small opportunity for employment … but has not always allowed the country to hold its head high,” said the committee report. It also referred to the “losses” Nepal endures when these young men are encouraged to become citizens of other countries.    http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/NA20Df01.html

Engels: It is a Small Step from Soldier Suicides to Killing Officers On Thursday, the Army released a report, “Generating Health and Discipline in the Force, Ahead of the Strategic Reset,” the result of a three-year study that portrays the difficulties in dealing with suicide. The findings were mixed: Active-duty soldiers killed themselves at a record level in 2011, but the overall suicide rate dropped when non-mobilized Reserve and National Guard troops were included.
“For the calendar year 2011, if you take a look at all the categories, the overall suicide numbers decrease by 10%, from 350 to 315,” Army Gen. Peter Chiarelli, the outgoing vice chief of staff, told reporters. “The only category where we had an increase of five suicides was in the active-duty category.
“I think we’ve at least arrested this problem and hopefully will start to push it down,” Chiarelli said. “For all practical purposes … it has leveled off.”
Chiarelli said he is most concerned about an increase in violent sex crimes among members of the Army, which rose 64% from 2006 to 2011. “This is unacceptable. We have zero tolerance for this,” he said.
The day before, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta had announced that there were 3,191 sexual assaults reported in the military last year, up slightly from the 3,158 reported in 2010. But he and experts agree that the real number of assaults is probably closer to 19,000 because most attacks are not reported.    http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/2012/01/pentagon-worries-about-sexual-assault-rates.html

The International Economic War of the Rich on the Poor

The Four Horsemen of Barbarism all tell the Truth About each Other without Saying, “psycho” while the War Criminal Laughs on the sidelines

With time ebbing to catch front-runner Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential candidates brawled Thursday night in a debate that drew angry denunciations of the media from Newt Gingrich and spurred heated disagreements between Gingrich and fellow challenger Rick Santorum.    http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-gop-debate-20120120,0,5109569.story

January 21, 1997 – Newt Gingrich was fined as the U.S. House of Representatvies voted for first time in history to discipline its leader for ethical misconduct. 1998 – A former White House intern said on tape that she had an affair with U.S. President Clinton

In Detroit, the Roof is Caving In About two months after employees and union members implored Mayor Dave Bing’s administration to abandon a plan to move the Department of Human Services to an older, city-owed building because of lurking dangers, employees say a concrete ceiling collapsed last week, injuring a worker and fueling more concerns about safety and the controversial relocation.

Union leaders representing employees at the Herman Kiefer Health Complex — also home of the Department of Health and Wellness Promotion — said building attendant John Lucas is recovering from head, back and shoulder injuries suffered in the incident.

“We knew this was going to happen,” said Gina Thompson, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 1642, which represents Lucas and had lobbied relentlessly against the move. “He’s lucky to be alive. He’s still in a lot of pain.”     www.freep.com/article/20120120/NEWS01/201200402/Detroit-city-workers-Ceiling-collapsed-in-unsafe-building-we-were-forced-to-move-into?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|FRONTPAGE|s

Video of Dismantling Detroit www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTEIGtHXOT4

O No! Saudi’s Pivot to Asia?!!! Whither the Oil? Saudi Arabia’s future lies in Asia. That was the subtext of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao’s recent visit to Riyadh. That future might arrive a lot quicker than people think, if BP is to be believed.
BP’s most recent energy outlook report predicts that the United States will become almost self-sufficient in energy by 2030, thanks to exploitation of its shale oil and gas resources.
Per The Guardian, this is a ”development with enormous geopolitical implications”. [1]
Specifically, the geopolitical implication is that, if the United States does not need the Middle East for energy security, it will lose much of its motivation to meddle in the region, at least in the   mense nation-destroying, budget-busting tradition of the Iraq wars.  http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/NA21Ak03.html

In 1964, before he died, Malcolm X Said, ” The Real war is between the Exploiters and the Exploited A new Pew Research Center survey of 2,048 adults finds that about two-thirds of the public (66%) believes there are “very strong” or “strong” conflicts between the rich and the poor—an increase of 19 percentage points since 2009.
Not only have perceptions of class conflict grown more prevalent; so, too, has the belief that these disputes are intense. According to the new survey, three-in-ten Americans (30%) say there are “very strong conflicts” between poor people and rich people. That is double the proportion that offered a similar view in July 2009 and the largest share expressing this opinion since the question was first asked in 1987.    http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2012/01/11/rising-share-of-americans-see-conflict-between-rich-and-poor/?src=prc-headline

Steal $435,000 of Public $. Cop a Plea. No Time. Payback $1,200 a Year. What did the Judge get? Combined, they’ll have to pay restitution of $435,018.36. They’ll repay the city of San Diego at the rate of $100 per month — which amounts to $1,200 annually each. At that rate, the money won’t be repaid until the year 2193. Both are on probation for five years.
In a lengthy statement, Judge Edward Allard III laid out his reasoning for not imposing the jail time the prosecutors had asked for. He said the defendants had already suffered significantly, losing their careers, incomes and reputations.
“By their pleas, they have now been held accountable,” he said   www.voiceofsandiego.org/public_safety/pavement/article_37917a7e-43a4-11e1-9a4a-001871e3ce6c.html

The Emergence of Fascism as a Mass Popular Movement

WaPo Notices Ten Factors of Fascist Development:

Assassination of U.S. citizens,

Indefinite detention,

Arbitrary justice,

Warrantless searches,

Secret Evidence,

War Crimes,

Secret Courts,

Immunity from Judicial Review,

Continued Surveillance,

Extraordinary Renditions.

“An authoritarian nation is defined not just by the use of authoritarian powers, but by the ability to use them. If a president can take away your freedom or your life on his own authority, all rights become little more than a discretionary grant subject to executive will.” www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/is-the-united-states-still-the-land-of-the-free/2012/01/04/gIQAvcD1wP_print.html

Obamagogue’s Rotweiller, Rahm, Imposes Fascist Measures in Chicago for G8 Surviving measures include: more surveillance cameras; parks and beaches closed until 6 a.m.; sweeping parade restrictions and higher fees for those events and empowering McCarthy to “deputize” out-of-state law enforcement personnel experienced in handling civil unrest.

The mayor would also be granted sweeping authority to purchase goods and services for the summits — without City Council approval or competitive bidding — provided those items cannot be purchased under existing contracts.

“If these ordinances pass … all bets are off. If the federal government decides to nix the permit we’ve already received, all bets are off. Why should people respect the law if the law does not respect them?” said Andy Thayer, a spokesman for the Coalition Against the NATO G-8 War and Poverty Agenda.

“So I put the onus on the City Council, on Mayor Emanuel and President Obama. If you cancel peoples’ constitutional rights tomorrow or in the future, the onus is on you for what happens.”

Evelyn Dehais, of Occupy Chicago, said it’s “shameful” that Emanuel is seeking to “codify the suppression of peaceful protest” during the same week that the nation celebrates the champion of peaceful dissent, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.      http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/10061186-418/rahm-emanuel-backs-off-stiff-fines-for-g-8-nato-protesters.html

Yippee! Arab Spring Wins Sharia! Caliphate coming.  What’s An Enlightenment anyway? The political wing of Egypt’s most historic Islamist party won by far the largest number of seats in the first post-revolutionary parliament, final results confirmed Saturday, and is now poised to play a dominant role in the drafting of a new constitution.
The Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party took 47 percent of seats in the lower house of parliament, and the ultraconservative Salafist Nour Party won 25 percent of the elected seats.   www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/final-results-confirms-islamists-winners-in-egypts-elections/2012/01/21/gIQAXpwbGQ_story.html

Solidarity For Never

NEA Brags It Can Get Members to Work for Nothing!! At an early January meeting, members of the Chester Upland Education Association and the Chester Upland Education Support Personnel Association, affiliates of the Pennsylvania State Education Association and the National Education Association, passed a resolution promising to stay on the job – even without pay – as long as they were individually able. The teachers and support professionals vowed to band together to keep the schools running for as long as they could.  http://neatoday.org/2012/01/11/educators-will-work-without-pay-to-keep-broke-district-from-failing/

Quisling Bob King of the UAW Declares “We are One!” While Denying Class War (and Vote Obamagogue) UAW President Bob King called for economic justice, a stand for immigrant rights and the re-election of President Barack Obama on Saturday as he spoke to fellow labor leaders and activists during an AFL-CIO luncheon in observance of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.
Bob King spoke during a luncheon for the “We Are One” conference that began Thursday and runs through Monday at MotorCity Casino Hotel. King told the audience that this weekend’s events should inspire them to listen to the civil rights leader’s sermons or writings. He said he listened to “The American Dream” speech on his way to the conference.     www.detroitnews.com/article/20120114/AUTO01/201140375/UAW-leader-lauds-occupy-movement-calls-economic-justice?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|FRONTPAGE|p

One of Dozens of Ways OWS Can Be Turned into Saps for Obamagogue: The Democratic Party may have entered the Occupy Wall Street movement through the “Black door,” in the form of Occupy The Dream, the Black ministers’ group led by former NAACP chief and Million Man March national director Dr. Benjamin Chavis and Baltimore mega-church pastor Rev. Jamal Bryant. Both are fervent supporters of President Obama.

Occupy The Dream’s National Steering Committee is made up entirely of clergy, as are its Members at Large, but its secular inspiration comes from media mogul (and credit card purveyor) Russell Simmons, who was a frequent visitor to Manhattan’s occupied Zuccotti Park. Simmons is co-chairman, with Dr. Chavis, of the Hip Hop Summit Action Network, whose website is now mainly dedicated to the Occupy The Dream project. It is through Simmons that the ministers hope to attract entertainers and athletes to Occupy The Dream events.

Occupy Wall Street organizer David DeGraw tied the knot with the Dream team at a Washington Press Club conference on December 14, invoking Dr. Martin Luther King’s Poor People’s campaign and the need to “penetrate deeper into the African American community.” Dr. Chavis said, “If Dr. King were alive today, he would be part of Occupy Wall Street,” and Rev. Bryant, pastor of Baltimore’s 10,000-member Empowerment Temple AME Church, pledged that Occupy The Dream will work “in lock-step” with OWS. The OWS/OTD alliance would begin, they announced, with a multi-city action at Federal Reserve Bank offices on MLK Day, January 16.

The very next Sunday, Rev. Bryant was at his pulpit exhorting his congregation to get out the vote for the president.   blackagendareport.com/content/occupy-wall-street-joins-occupy-dream-it-cooptation-or-growing-movement

AFL-CIO To Spend Millions on Ads Promising to be Nice to Boss and Tens of Millions for Obamagogue (this is “collective bargaining”) The AFL-CIO is launching an ad campaign that seeks to bolster the labor movement’s image—the first such effort in more than a decade—as unions try to reverse a slide in public approval and membership.
Labor officials say the broad campaign, which is being rolled out initially in three cities at a cost of $1.5 million, isn’t political and remains separate from the AFL-CIO’s election mobilization, when the federation is expected to spend tens of millions of dollars to support President Barack Obama. The AFL-CIO spent $53 million on the 2008 presidential election.   …One 30-second television ad that is scheduled to air for the first time Tuesday in Pittsburgh and Austin, Texas, and in coming days in Portland, Ore., features close-ups of workers, including firefighters and airline pilots, with a voiceover saying, “Work doesn’t separate. It’s what binds us together. I teach your kid, you fix my car, he builds my city, she keeps it safe. Work is what connects us.”   The ads were created by marketing firm SS+K, which has done work for General Motors Co. and the Gates Foundation.

The current AFL-CIO campaign is far different from earlier ones that urged people to vote for unions as a way to give workers more clout in the workplace.
“Today’s union movement is all about giving people a voice in what goes on at work,” said Jack Lemmon in an ad from the 1980s that featured a jingle about voting “Yes” for a union.online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203735304577164973618567772.html?mod=WSJ_article_LatestHeadlines

Spy Versus Spy

Russian ‘spy rock’ was genuine, former Brit chief of staff admits It was a spy plot so far-fetched it would be worthy of James Bond – a transmitter concealed inside an artificial rock by British agents and placed next to a Russian street in order to steal classified data.   But it has emerged that the ‘spy rock’ diplomatic row which damaged relations with Russia in early 2006 was not a work of fiction after all.
Britain initially laughed off accusations from Moscow that spies had been caught “red-handed” using the fake rock to contact agents and download sensitive information.

Now six years on, Tony Blair’s former Chief of Staff has admitted that the “embarrassing” episode was entirely true and not merely far-fetched Russian propaganda.    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/9022827/Russian-spy-rock-was-genuine-former-chief-of-staff-admits.html

Canada Spook Scandal Deepens Four Russian diplomats have left Canada just days after a naval intelligence officer was charged with passing government secrets to a “foreign entity.”  The four men, who were based at the Russian Embassy in Ottawa, disappeared at some point on Thursday from an online database of accredited diplomats compiled by Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs. A note from the department indicates that the online registry is updated daily.

But the Russian Foreign Ministry, in a Twitter message, denied numerous reports in the Canadian news media that the men were expelled by Canada for their involvement with Sub-Lt. Jeffrey Paul Delisle, who was charged last weekend with passing government secrets over the last four and a half years.   www.nytimes.com/2012/01/21/world/americas/russian-diplomats-leave-canada-as-spy-case-heats-up.html?ref=global-home

So Long Johnny and Etta

www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1uunRdQ61M

The Best Thing in the History of the World

Happy Birthday Ali