[LAAMN] Mariela Castro In San Francisco: Cuban President's Daughter To Meet With Gay Rights Groups
Cuban President's Daughter, Mariela Castro in San Francisco: To Meet With Gay Rights Groups http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/19/mariela-castro-san-francisco_n_1530012.html [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] --- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --- Unsubscribe: mailto:laamn-unsubscr...@egroups.com --- Subscribe: mailto:laamn-subscr...@egroups.com --- Digest: mailto:laamn-dig...@egroups.com --- Help: mailto:laamn-ow...@egroups.com?subject=laamn --- Post: mailto:la...@egroups.com --- Archive1: http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn --- Archive2: http://www.mail-archive.com/laamn@egroups.com --- Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/ * Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional * To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/join (Yahoo! ID required) * To change settings via email: laamn-dig...@yahoogroups.com laamn-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: laamn-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[LAAMN] Paul Krugman: End This Depression Now
It (the Occupied Movement) didn't change everything, obviously, but it was basically the emperor was wearing no clothes moment on our economic debate. I thought it was enormously productive. - Paul Krugman, below. http://www.democracynow.org/2012/5/17/end_this_depression_now_paul_krugman http://www.democracynow.org/2012/5/17/end_this_depression_now_paul_krugman AMY GOODMAN: Leaders of the G8, the Group of Eight, leading industrialized nations are gathering at Camp David for a two-day summit beginning Friday. The European economic crisis is expected to top the agenda as fears grow the eurozone could be unraveling. Greek voters will soon head to the polls for another round of elections, which will be viewed by many as a referendum on the euro. Meanwhile, France's new finance minister has reiterated the country's new Socialist government will not ratify the European Union's fiscal pact calling for greater austerity. A fight over austerity is also brewing in Washington. House Speaker John Boehner has revived the Republicans' hard-line stance on the debt ceiling. SPEAKER JOHN BOEHNER: We should not raise the debt ceiling without real spending cuts and reforms that exceed the amount of the debt limit increase. Now, from all the way up in Midtown Manhattan, I could hear the great wailing and gnashing of teeth. And over the next couple of months, I was asked again and again if I would yield on my position, that if I would budge. Each and every time, I said no, because it isn't a position, it's a principle. Not just that it's the right thing to do, it is the right thing to do. When the time comes, I will again insist on my simple principle of cuts and reforms greater than the debt limit increase. AMY GOODMAN: A similar move from Boehner and House Republicans last year nearly brought about a U.S. default on its national debt. Well, for the remainder of the hour, we're joined now by one of the world's leading economists, Paul Krugman. He is a Nobel Prize-winning economist, an op-ed columnist for the New York Times, also professor of economics at Princeton University and centenary professor at the London School of Economics. His latest book is End This Depression Now! Paul Krugman, welcome back to Democracy Now! PAUL KRUGMAN: Good morning. AMY GOODMAN: How do we end this depression now? PAUL KRUGMAN: Spend. I mean, it's really-it's actually-the economics is really easy. If we were to spend more money at the government level, and actually, at this point, largely, just rehire the schoolteachers, firefighters, police officers who have been laid off in the last several years because of cutbacks at the state and local level, we would be a long way back towards full employment. Other things to do, we could talk about monetary policy, debt relief for homeowners and students. But the core of it is, right now, there just is not enough spending, and we need the government, which can do it, to step in and provide the demand we need. AMY GOODMAN: To say the least, you're going against the accepted dogma on all television among the so-called leaders of our country. Spend? In a time when the government has the debt the size it has? PAUL KRUGMAN: Right. So you can always say, Oh, you know, $14 trillion. Everything about the U.S. economy is huge. Investors don't think it's a problem. Investors are willing to lend the U.S. government money at 1.8 percent interest. This is not the time. I'll be all for worrying about the budget deficit once the-once the economy is off the bottom. But it is not off the bottom. We are in a depression. This is the time to spend. AMY GOODMAN: Where do you get the money? PAUL KRUGMAN: Borrow it, and then repay it later in better times, which is not at all-that may sound funny, but that's exactly what we've done in the past. That's exactly-how did we get out of the Great Depression? We got out of it by-actually, we got out of it before World War II, but thanks to the spending that preceded World War II, thanks to the military buildup. A little factoid people may not know, just this morning: Which of the major economies in the advanced world grew fastest in the first quarter of 2012? The surprise answer is Japan. Why is that happening? It's because Japan is now spending a lot of money reconstructing after the tsunami. And that spending is driving rapid growth in Japan right now. We could all be doing that. AMY GOODMAN: Let's go to Mitt Romney for a moment, the presidential candidate's economic plans and his critique of the Obama White House. This is what he said Wednesday at a campaign stop in Iowa. MITT ROMNEY: President Obama is an old-school liberal whose first instinct is to see free enterprise as the villain and government as the hero. America counted on President Obama to rescue the economy, to tame the deficit and help create jobs. Instead, he bailed out the public sector, gave billions of your dollars to companies of his friends, and added almost as much debt to this country as
[LAAMN] Video:An illegal demonstration of 250,000 shakes Quebec society
http://www.marxist.com/illegal-demonstration-shakes-quebec-society.htm An illegal demonstration of 250,000 shakes Quebec societyhttp://www.marxist.com/illegal-demonstration-shakes-quebec-society.htm Written by Isa Al-Jaza'iri Wednesday, 23 May 2012 [image: Print]http://www.marxist.com/illegal-demonstration-shakes-quebec-society/print.htm[image: E-mail]http://www.marxist.com/component/option,com_mailto/link,86479d14afbff67302500036f682291802b7afb8/tmpl,component/ *Tuesday, May 22nd saw the largest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history. Over 250,000 youth and workers came out into the streets and openly defied the emergency law that requires police approval of protest routes 8 hours in advance. A widely publicized official route was broken, as the crowd turned away, following an unannounced path.* [image: 22 May crowd. Photo: Justin Ling]http://www.marxist.com/images/stories/canada/2012-05-22_crowd-Justin_Ling.jpgPhoto: Justin Ling http://www.flickr.com/photos/66368850@N00/The crowd was enormous, and easily broke the previous records set by the demonstrations on March 22 and April 22, proving that this movement was beginning to penetrate into wider layers of Quebecois society. Premiere Jean Charests gamble that the movement could be smashed with police batons and emergency powers had backfired, badly. Last week, Charest announced a law attacking the right to protest of students and workers, banning protests within 50 meters of colleges and universities, and instituting heavy fines for anyone who disrupts classes, thereby eliminating students right to strike. This law is comparable to previous laws ordering workers at Canada Post and Air Canada back to work and also removing their right to strike. [image: Placard against emergency law 78. Photo: Christian Aubry]http://www.marxist.com/images/stories/canada/2012-05-22_law_78-Christian_Aubry.jpgPlacard against emergency law 78. Photo: Christian Aubryhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/amicalmant/Unfortunately for the Quebec Premiere, enforcing this law is no easy task. For months, the movement has already made court injunctions null and void through mass action. It was inevitable that this law would provoke the same kind of non-compliance. Classe, the main student union organizing the strike, responded Monday at 3:30 with a press conference announcing that they were calling for civil disobedience and that their spokespersons were ready to go to jail for issuing such an appeal. The massive turnout yesterday showed how this law actually turned the situation around for the student movement. While the governments line of defending order had been gaining some ground in the previous period, after the smoke bombs on the metro carried out by a small group of individuals, this emergency law completely exposed the government. The tide turned very quickly, the government lost support in the latest polls, and the outcry turned into a massive sea of humanity yesterday. [image: May 22 demo. Photo: indratarben]http://www.marxist.com/images/stories/canada/2012-05-22_man_with_mask-indratarben.jpgPhoto: indratarben http://www.flickr.com/photos/indratarben/Charest will now be under pressure from two directions within his party. There will be those who argue that this demonstration must be met with fines, or else it will send the message that the law is meaningless. There will be others who argue that any attempt to fine Classe would be madness that can only further strengthen them and expose the undemocratic nature of the law. The Premiere is stuck. There is no easy way out. This is the moment to press the advantage and go on the offensive. This demonstration was a massive victory that destroyed the attempts to paint the movement as isolated, and the attempts to make it illegal. Now is the time, while the enemy is disoriented, to advance. Yesterday we saw thousands of workers join the demonstration. The unions mobilized their members to participate. [image: May 22, Montreal. Photo: Christian Aubry]http://www.marxist.com/images/stories/canada/2012-05-22_tamborine-Christian_Aubry.jpgPhoto: Christian Aubry http://www.flickr.com/photos/amicalmant/The STM [the public transit company in Montreal] workers union made a decision yesterday to no longer allow the public transport buses to be used to move riot police and their prisoners around Montreal. The nurses union compared the law to their back-to-work legislation in 1999. The teachers unions had their right to strike suspended in 2005. Current regulations ban solidarity strikes, political strikes, and picket lines in front of the entrances of the workplace. This struggle needs to be transformed into a larger struggle against all restrictions on the right to strike. Last week, the CSN [one of the trade union federations] public sector workers union voted unanimously at its congress to reaffirm the unions mandate for a social strike and call for a mass mobilization to defend its allies in society, in reference to
[LAAMN] - Crash Alert -
An unconscious people, an indoctrinated people, a people fed only partisan information and opinion that confirm their own bias, a people made morbidly obese in mind and spirit by the junk food of propaganda, is less inclined to put up a fight, ask questions and be skeptical. That kind of orthodoxy can kill a democracy - or worse. - Bill Moyers If those who support aggressive war had seen a fraction of what I've seen, if they'd watched children fry to death from Napalm and bleed to death from a cluster bomb, they might not utter the claptrap they do. - John Pilger The propagandist's purpose is to make one set of people forget that certain other sets of people are human - Aldous Huxley -- Having trouble viewing this email? Click here http://campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?llr=iqnuv6babv=001jt41QcDym6DtQD0ylQJVCyi7t1ha8Bg0knBpVkiO0mlo_3WVuLzKoVVqZiBsXpVXx47jj6xg249bf0g8O8dlHYp-YTbJWL8tnOntwFac6AGdBb-PFSEZ7RZodsVSCqzs Not For Profit - For Global Justice Is Your Mind Worth Fighting For? Propaganda kills, maims children, blow up homes and works to destroy countless millennia of human progress and evolution. Are we no more than laboratory rats programmed to behave according to a script written by those who see us as no more than consumers. Are we no more than slaves to our own desire for safety and comfort? Is YOUR SANITY worth fighting for? I will not tell you that we can stop a war, I will not tell you that we can end suffering, I will tell you that your contribution to Information Clearing House will ensure that tomorrow and the weeks following their will exist a place where sanity, common sense and a respect for all of humanity ensures that lies do not stand and that liars do not prosper. Fight Back - Join Me Now! To Use your credit card or check, click here: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/support.htm [http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001xgw_YHdAraAeidCFMqpgEiiBc9azP6v1nWf-vb4ock_G3rhISoy4ewsbGCvr5zzWcOwOaHjeB-jrksoYN5pjlvCaZSjaKFckHIc780_cIhIwL0n_o5zw8gd-OXKEHpNkOR5dmnX1gym51yB05_K6RZipgmj4Zzss] or if you prefer to send a check or money order, Information Clearing House, PO Box 365 Imperial Beach, CA 91933. USA. Low income readers: DON'T send money, just encourage others to subscribe. http://informationclearinghouse.info/subscribe.htm [http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001xgw_YHdAraBbzXSq_PNKNbbpnaDGv9UeSLNe0pPauviwxmmPzCFofhDFckAzERZN8f8AbFGrSbSbM5ZxPqcFhDlPcApUCud7aNsei-NFdOO0QC8C_cwGISe3HTAG_uY77vMHSqeNDo8bjOcM42bTJg==] To all who have assisted in the past. Thank you. Your help is greatly appreciated. Peace and Joy. Tom Feeley === An unconscious people, an indoctrinated people, a people fed only partisan information and opinion that confirm their own bias, a people made morbidly obese in mind and spirit by the junk food of propaganda, is less inclined to put up a fight, ask questions and be skeptical. That kind of orthodoxy can kill a democracy - or worse. - Bill Moyers If those who support aggressive war had seen a fraction of what I've seen, if they'd watched children fry to death from Napalm and bleed to death from a cluster bomb, they might not utter the claptrap they do. - John Pilger The propagandist's purpose is to make one set of people forget that certain other sets of people are human - Aldous Huxley May 23/24, 2012 Click Here For Op-Ed Articles Click Here For Hard News Items Click Here For Cost Of War Follow us on Twitter [http://twitter.com/#tomfeeley] Support Information Clearing House [http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001xgw_YHdAraAeidCFMqpgEiiBc9azP6v1nWf-vb4ock_G3rhISoy4ewsbGCvr5zzWcOwOaHjeB-jrksoYN5pjlvCaZSjaKFckHIc780_cIhIwL0n_o5zw8gd-OXKEHpNkOR5dmnX1gym51yB05_K6RZipgmj4Zzss] Visit our blog [http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/] Op-Ed Articles The End in Afghanistan is Totally Predictable By Dave Llindorff The American forces in Afghanistan know they have already lost the war there. They know too that as soon as the last of them has boarded the last plane out, or perhaps even earlier, the current corrupt Afghan leadership will be hopping a commercial flight out too, to join their money in Switzerland or Abu Dhabi. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article31408.htm [http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001xgw_YHdAraDwVaVoWS4umEozZ2KTS1JvVEYTFr8p-8wYw8hBttcGZG84Ee3IJCap8kJ1uIr6L8lQNLYMfBv-cfkGfy_SCPR2kpQ0Tz5P1GNR22cK861oKujUOm0LsfBVwPaSXbiDWkQKd3YhU07CkA5zyCLRm1bq] Kucinich: US 'Sanction Warfare' Makes Real Iran War Inevitable Video and Transcript If Mr. Netanyahu wants to pay for war - that's up to him.- The
[LAAMN] Don't Buy the Spin: How Cutting the Pentagon's Budget Could Boost the Economy
Don't Buy the Spin: How Cutting the Pentagon's Budget Could Boost the Economy http://www.thenation.com/article/167811/dont-buy-spin-how-cutting-pentagons-budget-could-boost-economy [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] --- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --- Unsubscribe: mailto:laamn-unsubscr...@egroups.com --- Subscribe: mailto:laamn-subscr...@egroups.com --- Digest: mailto:laamn-dig...@egroups.com --- Help: mailto:laamn-ow...@egroups.com?subject=laamn --- Post: mailto:la...@egroups.com --- Archive1: http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn --- Archive2: http://www.mail-archive.com/laamn@egroups.com --- Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/ * Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional * To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/join (Yahoo! ID required) * To change settings via email: laamn-dig...@yahoogroups.com laamn-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: laamn-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[LAAMN] Interview with NATO protest organizer Joe Iosbaker
Interview with NATO protest organizer Joe Iosbaker “The people are more powerful than the cops, the mayor, or NATO” By Staff Fight Back! interviews Joe Iosbaker, the Chicago spokesperson for the United National Antiwar Coalition and a leader in the Coalition Against NATO/G8 War and Poverty Agenda, on the massive May 20 protest at the NATO Summit. Fight Back!: Please talk some about what happened at the march on the NATO Summit and who was there. Joe Iosbaker: 15,000 people rallied and marched against the war makers’ summit on a scorching hot day here in Chicago. It was a very broad gathering, involving the Iraq Veterans Against the War, National Nurses United and the Reverend Jesse Jackson. We had music by Tom Morello, Rebel Diaz, David Rovics and Outer National. Carlos Montes came from Los Angeles, straight from the political persecution trial he is facing. Students came from Utah, Florida and all over the Midwest. There were over 40 speakers. We had leaders of the anti-war movement in the U.S., Germany and Mexico. Representatives spoke from the movements of various oppressed nationalities: Filipinos, Palestinians, Puerto Ricans, and African Americans, including a taped message from Mumia Abu Jamal. They came from the immigrant rights movement; from the Muslim community and from among faith based activists, environmentalists, and LGBTQ activists. We had Afghans and Pakistanis. We had trade unionists, and of course, the Occupy movement. After we rallied in the park, we then marched almost three miles to the location of the summit, McCormick Place. There 40 veterans of the Iraq and Afghan wars mounted a stage and one by one, returned the medals they had been given for their service in the U.S. military. The young men and women all swore they wouldn’t fight again in wars for profit under NATO or U.S. flags. The bitterness expressed by the vets was the most moving part of the day. Fight Back!: What was the political message of the protest? Iosbaker: The message had two parts to it: against war and against the attacks by the rich on the rest of us. This was expressed in several ways. We raised several slogans, “Jobs, Housing, Healthcare, Education, Our Pensions, the Environment, Not War!” “No to NATO War makers! No to War and Austerity!” These slogans showed first, that we were marching against the wars by NATO and the U.S. against the people of Afghanistan, Libya and Pakistan, and threatening against Syria. And second, we know that the trillions that are spent on war could go toward meeting the needs of poor and working people at home. But we also raised one other idea. Last summer, the United National Antiwar Coalition called for this protest and organized a meeting to form a broader group. We called the new formation the Coalition Against NATO/G8 War and Poverty Agenda because initially NATO and the Group of Eight - a meeting of the wealthiest countries - were to both meet here. The G8 conference includes the central bankers from those rich nations, who are responsible above all for the economic crisis that struck in 2008. When they were in trouble, they were bailed out with trillions from taxpayers in each of those countries. But the workers who are losing homes can’t get a bailout. When we lose jobs because factories close, we can’t get a bailout. We got sold out, and we made that part of our message as well. Fight Back!: Could you say a few words about the Chicago Principles? Iosbaker: There are many forces that oppose NATO, including some that are willing to march, others who want to link arms and be arrested and others who want to challenge the authorities, including the police, more directly. For example, there were hundreds of people who refused to leave the intersection after the end of our permitted rally and march. We adopted the same principles that have been used at many major protests in the U.S. since the 2008 Republican National Convention in Saint Paul, Minnesota. They are an agreement that all those forces respect the other groups, despite tactical differences; that we won’t criticize each other to the corporate media; and that if one group is attacked, as the mostly youth crowd was when the Chicago and Illinois cops beat 60 of them bloody after our march ended, that we’ll put the blame where it belongs: on the police, the city of Chicago and on NATO for bringing this violence here. Fight Back!: A large contingent marched against repression. Tell us about that. Iosbaker: The most visible face at the protest was Carlos Montes. His image was on over 100 shirts, and 100 more posters. A contingent organized by the Committee to Stop FBI Repression had hundreds marching with it, including Filipinos, Palestinians and Puerto Ricans, all chanting, “Free Carlos Montes, drop the charges now!” Montes is on trial in Los Angeles, facing up to 12 years in prison for his lifelong political activism. Carlos was raided by the FBI
