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LaborGroups News 06Jan04

LaborGroups News 06Jan04

www.laborgroups.org/LaborGroupsNews06Jan04.pdf
www.laborgroups.org/LaborGroupsNews06Jan04.doc

1) Chicago Media Action January Newsletter
2) Work in Progress, Jan. 5, 2004
3) LabourStart.org: Labour website of the year
4) RNC tells MoveOn.org to FO
5) MoveOn.org
6) Health care hikes land on workers
7) Quarantining dissent
8) Complex-Numbers - a New Approach
9) H-2B hospitality workers in Charleston
10) Black Workers Make History !
11) 9 Articles About Job Destruction
12) CLG News
13) TruthOut
14) Smoke THIS !
15) Campaign for Better Health Care Fundraiser ! Please Help !
16) Union Sues Ralphs for Hiring Back Workers
17) Willie Nelson Debuts Anti-War Ballad

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1) Chicago Media Action January Newsletter

CHICAGO MEDIA ACTION NEWSLETTER, January 4, 2004
www.chicagomediaaction.org

(1) ANNOUNCEMENTS: UPCOMING EVENTS
Chicago Media Action is organizing a public education forum for Martin
Luther King Day weekend, to be held Sunday, January 18, 2004, 3pm-6pm, at the
Chicago Temple (77 W. Washington). Admission is $5 or pay what you can.
The forum is scheduled to include:
* Commentary by radio talk show host Cliff Kelley and In These Times columnist Salim
Muwakkil.
* "At the River I Stand", a 56-minute documentary on Dr. King's last labor
organizing movement.
* A 23-minute excerpt from Dr. King's "Why I Oppose The War in Vietnam"--given April 4, 1967, one year to the day before his assassination. * An audience comment/discussion period for memebers of the community to voice their opinions and interact with our speakers. * A celebratory hearing/singing-along-to Stevie Wonder's "Happy Birthday To You" (the hit song Wonder wrote honoring Dr. King when Reagan was asked to sign the bill making Dr. King's birthday a federal holiday).

More details to come in an upcoming alert, and on chicagomediaaction.org.

Come hear Robert McChesney, author of "Rich Media, Poor Democracy" and
a leader in the media reform movement, speak on "The Emerging Struggle
for Control of the Media in the U.S." Tuesday, January 27, 7:30-9:00
pm, White Activity Center, North Central Colllege, Naperville, IL. The
lecture is free and open to the public. For more information, please
call 630-637-5369.
(2) WHAT'S HAPPENED LAST MONTH WITH CMA?

* FCC chair Michael Powell gave a dinnertime talk before the Economic Club of Chicago on Thursday, December 18, 2003 at the Chicago Sheraton. Chicago Media Action organized a protest against Mr. Powell which brought some 20 attendees despite freezing cold and at least three events
occurring at exactly the same time. The protest saw the debut of some media-and-protest-themed Christmas carols. More details at:

www.chicagomediaaction.org/index.php

* WTTW-TV Channel 11, Chicago's main PBS affiliate, held its bimontly
meeting of its Community Advisory Board (CAB) on December 9, 2003. Four members of CMA attended the meeting and gave a 25 minute presentation of CMA's '4 demands' for fundamental WTTW reform.

CABs are required by law for public funding. WTTW's CAB, like most around
the nation, is carefully constructed and managed, making it very tough
for reformers to work with. (The general poor and working class public
that CMA is activating on media issues is much friendlier.) Before our "public comment" time, we saw the CAB vote down every recommendation to actually advise station management. (CAB gadfly Todd Wexman had proposed
recommending that NOW with Bill Moyers be in Friday primetime, that local children's shows be produced, and that some new shows be based on ideas from CMA and environmentalists.) At the end we walked out when a CAB member said we were just wasting their time. CMA didn't expect to convert the CAB; we had only hoped to try it out and to find some allies there. Some members of WTTW's CAB did seek us out afterwards for future contacts.

* CMA also made radio appearances on December 19 (on WZRD, 88.3 FM) and December 20 on Live From The Heartland (on WLUW, 88.7 FM).

* On December 6, CMA co-presented (with Andersonville Neighbors for Peace and Chicago Filmmakers) the film "Plan Colombia: Cashing-In on the Drug War Failure" at Chicago Filmmakers. CMA moderated the post-film discussion.

* And the CMA website underwent a substantial redesign:

www.chicagomediaaction.org

And don't forget our current rapid response campaign against WTTW-TV.
To learn more and to take part, please visit:

www.chicagomediaaction.org/index.php

(3) WHAT'S HAPPENING IN MEDIA POLITICS?

It was a slow month legislatively, as Congress adjourned for the year. But before adjourning, the House approved the Omnibus appropriations bill
which includes the rigged 39% "compromise" on the national TV ownership
cap. Read more here:

www.mediareform.net/congress/updates.php

The media ownership fight will resume in January when Congress reconvenes.

Meanwhile, the FCC controversially approved on December 22 (by the usual 3-2 vote) a $6.6 billion merger between Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation and the DirecTV satellite television service. Read more about this dreadful development:

www.alternet.org/story.html

Common Cause reports that the Bush Administration has awarded two major Republican donors seats on the nine-member board of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Bush appointees Cheryl Halpern and Gay Hart Gaines and their families have given over $800,000 to Republican causes in recent years. Read more here:

capwiz.com/afr/utr/1/LTYBCOPFVS/KRCECOTBKG

(4) MEDIA FACTOID OF THE MONTH

To quote from
www.museum.tv/archives/etv/C/htmlC/columbiabroa/columbiabroa.htm

"In 1927, when David Sarnoff did not see fit to include any of talent agent Arthur Judson's clients in his roster of stars for the new NBC radio networks, Judson defiantly founded his own network---United Independent Broadcasters. Soon merged with the Columbia Phonograph Company, the network went on the air on 18 September 1927 as the Columbia Phonograph Broadcasting Company."

In 1929, that network was renamed the Columbia Broadcasting System--CBS.

(5) MEDIA QUOTE OF THE MONTH

"If knowledge is power, if the function of information is to modify
or provide direction to action, then it is almost precisely true that
TV news shows give nearly no information and even less knowledge. Except of course through their commercials. One can be told about Bounty, Braniff, and Burger King, and then do something in relation to
them...Everything on a TV news show is arranged so that it is unnecessary, undesirable, and in any event, very difficult to attend
to the sense of what is depicted."

-- The late Neil Postman, in an essay published in The Nation magazine
on TV news, reprinted in The Nation, October 27, 2003, pg. 7

(6) THIS MONTH'S WEBSITE

www.thisishell.net

Chuck Mertz hosts the weekly Evanston-based radio program, which airs on WNUR 89.3 FM on Saturday mornings. The website includes
online archives of past shows and links to many informative essays
and articles.

(7) MORE ANNOUNCEMENTS

The Chicago Independent Press Association will be having an Empowerment Meeting for the Chicago Independent Press. The meeting will be on
Tuesday, January 13, 2004, 6:30-8:30 pm, at 1211 S. Western Ave., Chicago. The host will be Isaac Lewis, Editor and Publisher of the North Lawndale Community News. For more information, email jacklalleyipa (at) sbcglobal.net or call 773-973-4690.

"News from the Underground" is a festival of autonomous media which will celebrate all the news and views that corporate interests
marginalize, organized by the Chicago Independent Media Center and by Hasta Cuando. It'll take place January 16 at Women in the Director's Chair (941 W. Lawrence) and January 17 at Decima Musa, 1901 S. Loomis. For more
information, contact Thomas Yun (312-505-0764, mayday (at) riseup.net) or
Tracy Kurowski (312-282-6787, tracykurowski (at) postmark.net). Or visit
chicago.indymedia.org for forthcoming details.

The next CMA meeting will be on Tuesday, January 13, at 6:30pm, at 3411 W. Diversey (corner of Diversey and Kimball, near the Logan Square stop on the CTA Blue Line). All are invited.

*** *** *** *** *** *** ***

This is an email from Chicago Media Action, a Chicago activist
group devoted to media issues.

Chicago Media Action, P.O. Box 14140, Chicago IL 60614-0140 Call toll-free: 1-866-260-7198 Web: www.chicagomediaaction.org
email: cma (at) chicagomediaaction.org


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2) Work in Progress, Jan. 5, 2004

www.aflcio.org/aboutaflcio/wip/wip01052004.cfm

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3) LabourStart.org: Labour website of the year

First of all, a very happy new year to all of you.

Second, it's January and that means our 7th annual "Labour Website of the Year" competition.

The "Labour Website of the Year" is one of the most important ways we build LabourStart. The growth year on year of the number of participants in this annual event has been spectacular. In early 2001, 3 years ago, fewer than 300 votes were cast. A year later, that grew to 3,022 votes cast. And last year, that grew to 6,477.

Last year for the first time, we automatically added the addresses of those voting to our mailing list. Other than our online campaigns, this has been the biggest source of additional addresses for that mailing list.

I cannot overstate the importance of the Labour Website of the Year competition. It is not only a prestige project for LabourStart that makes a genuine contribution (encouraging excellence in trade union website design, and promoting great sites). It also contributes directly to our increasing capacity to wage successful online campaigns.

I'd like to ask each of you to nominate your favorite trade union website (please nominate only one) by going to this page today:

www.labourstart.org/lwsoty/

Click on the link to nominate a site and fill in the online form.

Voting begins next Monday, 12 January, so please do make sure to get in your nominations as soon as possible.

After voting begins, please do what you can to help promote a large turnout. The most successful way to do this is to place a special bit of code on nominated sites urging people to 'click here to vote for this site'. That way, people don't have to come to our site to cast their votes. Details are on the Labour Website of the Year page.

Thanks very much for your support on this important project. I look forward to working with you again in 2004.

Eric Lee

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4) RNC tells MoveOn.org to FO

Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie will discuss an ad posted on the Moveon.org website comparing President George W. Bush to Adolf Hitler. Tune in Today and catch Chairman Gillespie, on:

* 4:00 p.m. CNN's Inside Politics
* 7:00 p.m. MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews


------------------------------------------------------------------------

With over 2.9 million votes cast, we're proud to announce the finalists in the Bush in 30 Seconds ad contest. These ads have been selected by the rating public from among over 1,000 ads submitted. They're potent, poignant, and funny - it's a great mix. They perfectly capture the grassroots approach to politics we're pioneering together.

If you're in the New York area next Monday (1/12), please join us at Bush in 30 Seconds Live, an awards show to celebrate these ads and announce the winner. The show will be hosted by Janeane Garofalo and include performances and presentations by Margaret Cho, Moby, Chuck D, John Sayles, and other special guests. With comedy, music, and some of the best political ads the world has ever seen, it'll be a great night. And thanks to a few generous donors who are covering the costs, every cent you pay for tickets will go toward our $10 million campaign to expose Bush's policies in swing states.

You can get tickets now online for $35, $75, and $150 at:
www.moveonvoterfund.org/b30slive.html

We also have some special packages for donors of $1,000 or more - check out the bottom of this email for details.

Without further ado, the finalists are:





CHILD'S PAY
by Charlie Fisher of Denver, CO

High-Bandwidth Version
Low-Bandwidth Version





IN MY COUNTRY
by Harry Katatsakis, Derek Rittenhouse, Chris Wight of New York, NY

High-Bandwidth Version
Low-Bandwidth Version





POLYGRAPH
by Rich Garella, Adam Feinstein of New York, NY

High-Bandwidth Version
Low-Bandwidth Version





BRING 'EM ON
by Mike Cuenca of Lawrence, KS

High-Bandwidth Version
Low-Bandwidth Version





WHAT ARE WE TEACHING OUR CHILDREN?
by Fred Surr, Ted Page, Janet Tashjian of Needham, MA

High-Bandwidth Version
Low-Bandwidth Version





IMAGINE
by Mark Vicente of Los Angeles, CA

High-Bandwidth Version
Low-Bandwidth Version





HUMAN COST OF WAR
by Brian Wilkinson of White Plains, NY

High-Bandwidth Version
Low-Bandwidth Version





WAKE UP AMERICA
by Lisa M. Rowe of Hollywood, CA

High-Bandwidth Version
Low-Bandwidth Version





DESKTOP
by David Haynes of Dallas, TX

High-Bandwidth Version
Low-Bandwidth Version





ARMY OF ONE
by Penny Little, Nick Green, Michael Stinson, Julie Stigwart of Isla Vista, CA

High-Bandwidth Version
Low-Bandwidth Version





BANKRUPT
by Adam Klugman, Dave Adams of West Linn, OR

High-Bandwidth Version
Low-Bandwidth Version





HOOD ROBBIN'
by Nathania Vishnevsky of Foster City, CA

High-Bandwidth Version
Low-Bandwidth Version





LEAVE NO BILLIONAIRE BEHIND
by Andrew Boyd of Brooklyn, NY

High-Bandwidth Version
Low-Bandwidth Version





BUSH'S REPAIR SHOP
by Eric Martin of Silver Spring, MD

High-Bandwidth Version
Low-Bandwidth Version





GONE IN 30 SECONDS
by Eric Blumrich of Montclair, NJ

High-Bandwidth Version
Low-Bandwidth Version

You can also view all of the ads on the Bush in 30 Seconds website:
www.bushin30seconds.org/

Due to popular demand, we're also adding three new categories for the contest: Funniest Ad, Best Youth Market Ad, and Best Animation. If you register, you'll be able to vote on the finalists in each of these categories starting on Thursday. You can register at:
www.bushin30seconds.org/runoff/index.html

We're also working on making the top 250 ads available online indefinitely.

For everyone who submitted an ad or participated in the voting process, thanks for making Bush in 30 Seconds an incredible grassroots phenomenon. With this kind of creativity on our side, President Bush's policies don't stand a chance.

Sincerely,
--Adam, Carrie, Eli, James, Joan, Noah, Peter, Wes, and Zack
The MoveOn.org Team
January 5th, 2003

P.S. If you're interested in supporting Bush in 30 Seconds Live with a larger contribution, we've put together $1,000 and $5,000 packages. The details are below -- if you'd like to discuss these packages further, please contact Vanessa Barrera at:
Vanessa (at) bergerstrategies.com Vanessa (at) bergerstrategies.com>

$5,000 level
Package includes 4 VIP Box Tickets to Bush in 30 Seconds Live; a VIP reception with the honorees and special guests; and full listing and recognition in event materials.

$1,000 level
Package includes a ticket (preferred seating) to Bush in 30 Seconds Live; a ticket to the VIP reception with the honorees and special guests; and full listing and recognition in event materials.

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6) Health care hikes land on workers

Health care hikes land on workers
Big employers expect health care costs to increase by as much as 14 percent this year -- and are devising new ways to pass costs on to workers, company surveys have found.
www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-health05.html

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7) Quarantining dissent

sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi


Quarantining dissent
How the Secret Service protects Bush from free speech

James Bovard chronfeedback (at) sfchronicle.com>
Sunday, January 4, 2004
San Francisco Chronicle


When President Bush travels around the United States, the Secret Service visits the location ahead of time and orders local police to set up "free speech zones" or "protest zones," where people opposed to Bush policies (and sometimes sign-carrying supporters) are quarantined. These zones routinely succeed in keeping protesters out of presidential sight and outside the view of media covering the event.

When Bush went to the Pittsburgh area on Labor Day 2002, 65-year-old retired steel worker Bill Neel was there to greet him with a sign proclaiming, "The Bush family must surely love the poor, they made so many of us."

The local police, at the Secret Service's behest, set up a "designated free-speech zone" on a baseball field surrounded by a chain-link fence a third of a mile from the location of Bush's speech.

The police cleared the path of the motorcade of all critical signs, but folks with pro-Bush signs were permitted to line the president's path. Neel refused to go to the designated area and was arrested for disorderly conduct; the police also confiscated his sign.

Neel later commented, "As far as I'm concerned, the whole country is a free-speech zone. If the Bush administration has its way, anyone who criticizes them will be out of sight and out of mind."

At Neel's trial, police Detective John Ianachione testified that the Secret Service told local police to confine "people that were there making a statement pretty much against the president and his views" in a so-called free- speech area.

Paul Wolf, one of the top officials in the Allegheny County Police Department, told Salon that the Secret Service "come in and do a site survey, and say, 'Here's a place where the people can be, and we'd like to have any protesters put in a place that is able to be secured.' "

Pennsylvania District Judge Shirley Rowe Trkula threw out the disorderly conduct charge against Neel, declaring, "I believe this is America. Whatever happened to 'I don't agree with you, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it'?"

Similar suppressions have occurred during Bush visits to Florida. A recent St. Petersburg Times editorial noted, "At a Bush rally at Legends Field in 2001, three demonstrators -- two of whom were grandmothers -- were arrested for holding up small handwritten protest signs outside the designated zone. And last year, seven protesters were arrested when Bush came to a rally at the USF Sun Dome. They had refused to be cordoned off into a protest zone hundreds of yards from the entrance to the Dome."

One of the arrested protesters was a 62-year-old man holding up a sign, "War is good business. Invest your sons." The seven were charged with trespassing, "obstructing without violence and disorderly conduct."

Police have repressed protesters during several Bush visits to the St. Louis area as well. When Bush visited on Jan. 22, 150 people carrying signs were shunted far away from the main action and effectively quarantined.

Denise Lieberman of the American Civil Liberties Union of Eastern Missouri commented, "No one could see them from the street. In addition, the media were not allowed to talk to them. The police would not allow any media inside the protest area and wouldn't allow any of the protesters out of the protest zone to talk to the media."

When Bush stopped by a Boeing plant to talk to workers, Christine Mains and her 5-year-old daughter disobeyed orders to move to a small protest area far from the action. Police arrested Mains and took her and her crying daughter away in separate squad cars.

The Justice Department is now prosecuting Brett Bursey, who was arrested for holding a "No War for Oil" sign at a Bush visit to Columbia, S.C. Local police, acting under Secret Service orders, established a "free-speech zone" half a mile from where Bush would speak. Bursey was standing amid hundreds of people carrying signs praising the president. Police told Bursey to remove himself to the "free-speech zone."

Bursey refused and was arrested. Bursey said that he asked the police officer if "it was the content of my sign, and he said, 'Yes, sir, it's the content of your sign that's the problem.' " Bursey stated that he had already moved 200 yards from where Bush was supposed to speak. Bursey later complained, "The problem was, the restricted area kept moving. It was wherever I happened to be standing."

Bursey was charged with trespassing. Five months later, the charge was dropped because South Carolina law prohibits arresting people for trespassing on public property. But the Justice Department -- in the person of U.S. Attorney Strom Thurmond Jr. -- quickly jumped in, charging Bursey with violating a rarely enforced federal law regarding "entering a restricted area around the president of the United States."

If convicted, Bursey faces a six-month trip up the river and a $5,000 fine. Federal Magistrate Bristow Marchant denied Bursey's request for a jury trial because his violation is categorized as a petty offense. Some observers believe that the feds are seeking to set a precedent in a conservative state such as South Carolina that could then be used against protesters nationwide.

Bursey's trial took place on Nov. 12 and 13. His lawyers sought the Secret Service documents they believed would lay out the official policies on restricting critical speech at presidential visits. The Bush administration sought to block all access to the documents, but Marchant ruled that the lawyers could have limited access.

Bursey sought to subpoena Attorney General John Ashcroft and presidential adviser Karl Rove to testify. Bursey lawyer Lewis Pitts declared, "We intend to find out from Mr. Ashcroft why and how the decision to prosecute Mr. Bursey was reached." The magistrate refused, however, to enforce the subpoenas. Secret Service agent Holly Abel testified at the trial that Bursey was told to move to the "free-speech zone" but refused to cooperate.

The feds have offered some bizarre rationales for hog-tying protesters. Secret Service agent Brian Marr explained to National Public Radio, "These individuals may be so involved with trying to shout their support or nonsupport that inadvertently they may walk out into the motorcade route and be injured. And that is really the reason why we set these places up, so we can make sure that they have the right of free speech, but, two, we want to be sure that they are able to go home at the end of the evening and not be injured in any way." Except for having their constitutional rights shredded.

The ACLU, along with several other organizations, is suing the Secret Service for what it charges is a pattern and practice of suppressing protesters at Bush events in Arizona, California, Connecticut, Michigan, New Jersey, New Mexico, Texas and elsewhere. The ACLU's Witold Walczak said of the protesters, "The individuals we are talking about didn't pose a security threat; they posed a political threat."

The Secret Service is duty-bound to protect the president. But it is ludicrous to presume that would-be terrorists are lunkheaded enough to carry anti-Bush signs when carrying pro-Bush signs would give them much closer access. And even a policy of removing all people carrying signs -- as has happened in some demonstrations -- is pointless because potential attackers would simply avoid carrying signs. Assuming that terrorists are as unimaginative and predictable as the average federal bureaucrat is not a recipe for presidential longevity.

The Bush administration's anti-protester bias proved embarrassing for two American allies with long traditions of raucous free speech, resulting in some of the most repressive restrictions in memory in free countries.

When Bush visited Australia in October, Sydney Morning Herald columnist Mark Riley observed, "The basic right of freedom of speech will adopt a new interpretation during the Canberra visits this week by George Bush and his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao. Protesters will be free to speak as much as they like just as long as they can't be heard."

Demonstrators were shunted to an area away from the Federal Parliament building and prohibited from using any public address system in the area.

For Bush's recent visit to London, the White House demanded that British police ban all protest marches, close down the center of the city and impose a "virtual three-day shutdown of central London in a bid to foil disruption of the visit by anti-war protesters," according to Britain's Evening Standard. But instead of a "free-speech zone," the Bush administration demanded an "exclusion zone" to protect Bush from protesters' messages.

Such unprecedented restrictions did not inhibit Bush from portraying himself as a champion of freedom during his visit. In a speech at Whitehall on Nov. 19, Bush hyped the "forward strategy of freedom" and declared, "We seek the advance of freedom and the peace that freedom brings."

Attempts to suppress protesters become more disturbing in light of the Homeland Security Department's recommendation that local police departments view critics of the war on terrorism as potential terrorists. In a May terrorist advisory, the Homeland Security Department warned local law enforcement agencies to keep an eye on anyone who "expressed dislike of attitudes and decisions of the U.S. government." If police vigorously followed this advice, millions of Americans could be added to the official lists of suspected terrorists.

Protesters have claimed that police have assaulted them during demonstrations in New York, Washington and elsewhere.

One of the most violent government responses to an antiwar protest occurred when local police and the federally funded California Anti-Terrorism Task Force fired rubber bullets and tear gas at peaceful protesters and innocent bystanders at the Port of Oakland, injuring a number of people.

When the police attack sparked a geyser of media criticism, Mike van Winkle, the spokesman for the California Anti-Terrorism Information Center told the Oakland Tribune, "You can make an easy kind of a link that, if you have a protest group protesting a war where the cause that's being fought against is international terrorism, you might have terrorism at that protest. You can almost argue that a protest against that is a terrorist act."

Van Winkle justified classifying protesters as terrorists: "I've heard terrorism described as anything that is violent or has an economic impact, and shutting down a port certainly would have some economic impact. Terrorism isn't just bombs going off and killing people."

Such aggressive tactics become more ominous in the light of the Bush administration's advocacy, in its Patriot II draft legislation, of nullifying all judicial consent decrees restricting state and local police from spying on those groups who may oppose government policies.

On May 30, 2002, Ashcroft effectively abolished restrictions on FBI surveillance of Americans' everyday lives first imposed in 1976. One FBI internal newsletter encouraged FBI agents to conduct more interviews with antiwar activists "for plenty of reasons, chief of which it will enhance the paranoia endemic in such circles and will further service to get the point across that there is an FBI agent behind every mailbox."

The FBI took a shotgun approach toward protesters partly because of the FBI's "belief that dissident speech and association should be prevented because they were incipient steps toward the possible ultimate commission of act which might be criminal," according to a Senate report.

On Nov. 23 news broke that the FBI is actively conducting surveillance of antiwar demonstrators, supposedly to "blunt potential violence by extremist elements," according to a Reuters interview with a federal law enforcement official.

Given the FBI's expansive definition of "potential violence" in the past, this is a net that could catch almost any group or individual who falls into official disfavor.

James Bovard is the author of "Terrorism & Tyranny: Trampling Freedom, Justice, and Peace to Rid the World of Evil." This article is adapted from one that appeared in the Dec. 15 issue of the American Conservative.

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8) Complex-Numbers - a New Approach

---------------<<<>>>---------------
JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER
by Rob Sanchez
www.ZaZona.com
---------------<<<>>>---------------

It's not very often that a website comes along that has a totally
unique approach to fighting the destruction of American jobs.
Complex-Numbers is definitely in that category.
This website, made by Terry and Mickey Morgan from Seattle, Washington,
contains a collection of songs that protest H-1B, offshoring, and other
types of corporate tyranny. Their website says that, "These ballads are
dedicated to the Millions of American Citizens who are being destroyed
by the Greed of their Own Government."

First go to their main website address because it has a very cool song
and unorthodox graphics:
www.complex-numbers.com/

You can download all their songs at:
www.complex-numbers.com/home/dog-one.html

These musicians have one purpose, and that is to educate the American
public. Here is what they say about the use of their songs:

We don't care if you copy and distribute the music to
anyone as long as YOU don’t take credit for the music
or make any money in the process.

I copied the lyrics to their H-1B song below. Rumor has it that the
song was played on a Lou Dobbs episode awhile back but I haven't been
able to verify that.

------------------------------------

www.complex-numbers.com/home/laplux.html

L a p o f L u x u r y

(The H-1B Song)

Words and Music by "Complex Numbers"
Copyright © 2003 - Seneca Falls Music - All Rights Reserved
You Know My Government... Well He Don’t Care About Me.
You Know He’s Giving Away My Job To Some , H-1B Visa Holder Coz I’m Getting Older.
Well I Guess You Won’t Find Me...
Living In The Lap Of Luxury.

You Know He Told Me...
That If I Work Real Hard
I Could Obtain The Things I Want With My Credit Card
He Never Told Me... He Would Replace Me At A Whim. Anything That Insures It’s Him...
Living In The Lap Of Luxury.

You Know I’ve Never Been One To Stand There With My Hand Out.

You Won’t Find Me In The Welfare Line.
I’ve Always Believed In Paying My Fair Share And Now I Think That It’s Corporate’s Time
...
...
...
You Know I’ve Never Been One To Stand There With My Hand Out.

You Won’t Find Me In The Welfare Line.
I’ve Always Believed In Paying My Fair Share And Now I Think That It’s Corporate’s Time

You Know My President... Well He Don’t Care About Me.
You Know He’s Giving Away My Job To Some , H-1B Visa Holder Coz I’m Getting Older.
Well I Guess You Won’t Find Me...
Living In The Lap Of Luxury.

You Know My Government.... Well He Don’t Care About Me.
You Know My President... Well He Don’t Care About Me.
=======================
=======================
=======
Support this Newsletter and ZaZona.com by donating:
www.zazona.com/Donations.htm

To Subscribe or send an email to
H1BNews (at) ZaZona.com


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9) H-2B hospitality workers in Charleston

---------------<<<>>>---------------
JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER
by Rob Sanchez
www.ZaZona.com
---------------<<<>>>---------------

This article mentions that many of the 30,000 or so hospitality jobs in
South Carolina are filled by foreigners on H-2B visas but it fails to
mention how many are working in the U.S. illegally. Many hotels prefer
illegal aliens over H-2B visa holders because they are even cheaper. It
also mentioned that South Carolina had about 3,556 temporary workers
from foreign countries last year, but that number also includes H-1Bs
and possibly L-1s.

The theme of this article seems to be a common one, especially for
those of us in the programming/IT business. It always goes like this:
WE CAN'T FIND AMERICANS FOR THESE JOBS

"(Americans) don't want these jobs in many cases, whereas
these people are happy to be here, making what money they can
and getting a taste of what democracy is like," said Duane
Parrish, head of the local hotel/motel association and general
manager at the Hampton Inn on Daniel Island.

Reporters never seem to think of asking the proper follow-up questions
such as why they aren't willing to pay an American worker a living
salary to do these jobs, and whether the low salary and lousy working
conditions have anything to do with their difficulty in finding
citizens to fill these positions.

- - - - - - - - - - - -


Gary Crossley, area director for the state Employment Security Commission, said he doesn't get a lot of unemployed residents of
the state applying for restaurant jobs, partly because they can
get better-paying jobs and partly because they just aren't interested.

Crossley really gave away the answer to the shortage question, but the
reporter just didn't seem to get it. What is really being said here is
that Americans aren't interested in jobs that pay third-world salaries,
and that's why companies that complain about shortages can't find
citizens for to fill these jobs.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

The companies also have to go through an extensive approval
process, in which they must prove to state and federal labor
agencies that they couldn't fill the open positions with U.S. citizens. South Carolina hotels and restaurants must post a job notice within their company for 10 days, advertise in a local newspaper for one week, contact every applicant within
14 days and explain their reasoning to state officials if they turn an American down.

This is a totally false and misleading statement. H-2B visas are at
least as easy to obtain as H-1Bs and they don't require employers to
consider American citizens. Journalists always seem to believe this
corporate PR myth.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Dawn Teo's feelings on foreign labor were so strong that she and
her husband recently founded Rescue American Jobs, a nonprofit lobbying group bent on keeping American borders closed to
international
job seekers.

Teo, a Mesa, Ariz., resident, bankrolled most of the
organization's start-up cost with savings.

The journalist who wrote this story sure did a bad job with the
common-sense test on this one. Dawn's husband is a Chinese-Singaporean
immigrant who is in the process of becoming a naturalized citizen, so
Dawn obviously doesn't believe that the borders should be shut to
foreign job seekers. She wants to limit the abuse of nonimmigrant visas
and offshoring, not to close our borders to international job seekers.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

"It's about saving America, because we're exporting jobs, we're
importing
workers and it's depressing wages," she said. "(Hospitality
leaders) are
lying if they tell you that they can't fill positions with
Americans. They're not jumping through hoops to hire U.S. citizens when
actual
unemployment is well over 10 percent and they're still hiring
foreigners."

Teo, a Mesa, Ariz., resident, bankrolled most of the
organization's
start-up cost with savings.

It seemed very out-of-character for Dawn Teo to say that employers were
lying - it sounded more like something I would say! I became suspicious
that the reporter got something else wrong so I called her via
telephone today to get a clarification. She explained that it's a
mis-quote, because what she actually said is that employers can't find
American citizens for these jobs because they aren't willing to pay
enough - not because there is a shortage of people in this country that
want and/or need these jobs. Dawn said that employers aren't lying
because they are creating their own shortage by choosing low paid
foreign workers over American citizens.
Dawn Teo and her husband started "Rescue American Jobs" to address the
issues of nonimmigrant visas, offshoring, and job loss in America.
Since this article was published, their efforts have blossomed into a
full-fledged organization with local chapters. Go to the website at:
www.rescueamericanjobs.org

FYI: Dawn Teo operates out of Mesa, Ariz., about 30 minutes from my
office in Chandler, Arizona.
------------------------------------

www.charleston.net/stories/092903/bus_29foreign.shtml

The global hunt for hospitality workers
Hotels and restaurants fill job openings with employees from abroad BY KYLE STOCK Of The Post and Courier Staff
While more than 80 percent of Charleston's tourists drive to get here,
many of the people who work in its restaurants and hotels need a
passport to get to their jobs.
The local hospitality industry has become dependent on a steady stream
of workers from Mexico, Eastern Europe and Jamaica. With work visas
that let these recruits stay between six and 10 months, the temporary,
foreign labor pool helps to fill jobs that hoteliers and restaurateurs
say would otherwise go unfilled.

"(Americans) don't want these jobs in many cases, whereas these people
are happy to be here, making what money they can and getting a taste of
what democracy is like," said Duane Parrish, head of the local
hotel/motel association and general manager at the Hampton Inn on
Daniel Island.

Parrish held a job fair about two years ago to fill some of the 30 or
so housecleaning positions that his hotel had open. When he failed to
get a single applicant willing to clean rooms, he turned to Easy
Staffing, a local company that hires out Eastern Europeans. Parrish
said about 15 to 20 other Charleston hotels have taken similar steps to
keep their rosters full.

Hyacinth Williams, a chef at Kiawah Island Resort, has spent more time
in the Lowcountry the past four years than she has in her native
Jamaica, where, according to the World Bank Group, the average annual
income is around $3,000. Williams is one of the 75 or so Jamaicans who
commute to the island resort every March for an eight-month stint.
About half of them return every year.

"It's a wonderful place to work with wonderful people," Williams said.
"I can make three times what I would make in Jamaica."

For Williams, the job is an opportunity to provide a better life for
her 11-year-old daughter even though it means she spends most of her
time away from her.

"My second family is here -- right here in this kitchen -- so I feel
loved," she said.

Although it's clear that Williams is proud of the cooking skills she's
learned and her ability to provide for her relatives in Jamaica, she
said she has no plans or desire to move to the United States full-time
and become a citizen.

Williams made her connection with Kiawah through one of the many
staffing firms along the East Coast that help hospitality companies
locate foreign workers and clear the federal hurdles of getting them in
the country and on a payroll.

After using these staffing firms for a year, Kiawah human resource
managers started going down to Jamaica to recruit workers themselves.
Theresa Silo, Kiawah's human resource director, said thousands of
Jamaicans show up "in their Sunday best" to try to secure one of the 35
or so new jobs she has to fill every year.

It's hard to figure out just how many of the 30,000 or so local
hospitality jobs are filled by foreigners, but it's clear that managers
at Charleston hotels and restaurants would be scrambling to get dishes
cleaned and linens changed if all of the non-U.S. citizens were
suddenly sent home.

"The industry as a whole is dependent on foreign labor," said Catherine
Sandlin, executive director of the local hotel/motel association.

Foreign workers aren't tracked by the Charleston Chamber of Commerce or
the state's employment and tourism agencies, but last year 86,987 H2B
visas were given out by the federal government. These are temporary
work permits for people with no specific training or skills. The
Department of Labor said about 16,500 of these applicants are hired by
hospitality companies around the country. While the construction and
forestry industries also rely on foreign laborers, only landscaping
outfits draw more temporary workers from other countries.

South Carolina had about 3,556 temporary workers from foreign countries
last year, according to the federal Bureau of Citizenship and
Immigration Services, but that number includes trained employees, such
as medical professionals and engineers.

Although tourists aren't complaining, there has always been a strong
lobby in America against immigrant and foreign labor. Those voices have
gotten louder in the wake of the 9-11 attacks and the recession.

Dawn Teo's feelings on foreign labor were so strong that she and her
husband recently founded Rescue American Jobs, a nonprofit lobbying
group bent on keeping American borders closed to international job
seekers.

Teo, a Mesa, Ariz., resident, bankrolled most of the organization's
start-up cost with savings.

"It's about saving America, because we're exporting jobs, we're
importing workers and it's depressing wages," she said. "(Hospitality
leaders) are lying if they tell you that they can't fill positions with
Americans. They're not jumping through hoops to hire U.S. citizens when
actual unemployment is well over 10 percent and they're still hiring
foreigners."

Local hospitality leaders argue that, in fact, they don't save any
money by hiring overseas. Most hotels and restaurants pay the staffing
firms about $9 an hour per employee, a couple of dollars more than U.S.
workers may command. On the other hand, the hospitality companies don't
have to pay for insurance or benefits to temporary workers.

The companies also have to go through an extensive approval process, in
which they must prove to state and federal labor agencies that they
couldn't fill the open positions with U.S. citizens. South Carolina
hotels and restaurants must post a job notice within their company for
10 days, advertise in a local newspaper for one week, contact every
applicant within 14 days and explain their reasoning to state officials
if they turn an American down.

"It's a tedious process, and we fine-tooth-comb these applications,"
said Helene Law, who oversees the foreign labor certification process
for the state. "We are very careful about not skipping over U.S.
citizens."

Myrtle Beach hotels and restaurants, which also rely heavily on foreign
labor, got so strapped a few years ago that they started busing in
hundreds of workers from depressed areas hours inland.

Turning to foreign labor was a "last resort" for the Doubletree Inn &
Suites in downtown Charleston, which employs about three to nine
temporary workers from Europe at any given time.

"We pursued all the avenues that we could, but we were getting no
applications. Either that, or we were getting people with tremendous
histories of job jumping," said general manager Tripp Hays.

Gary Crossley, area director for the state Employment Security
Commission, said he doesn't get a lot of unemployed residents of the
state applying for restaurant jobs, partly because they can get
better-paying jobs and partly because they just aren't interested.

"There's just something about cleaning rooms or cleaning kitchens that
people have an aversion to," Crossley said.
Hoteliers and restaurateurs said they prefer the stability of hiring
U.S. citizens, citing fewer legal hoops to jump through and the ability
to retain and promote good employees.

However, most managers are more than happy with the work ethic and
attention to detail that laborers from less privileged parts of the
world bring to the job. And with friends and family an hours-long plane
ride away, there's usually no issue in keeping foreign workers
motivated and available to work additional shifts.


====================================

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------------------------------------------------------------------------
10) Black Workers Make History !

Black Telephone Workers Make History

(Black Workers News Service)Newark. In March, 2004, black telephone workers at Verizon, in New Jersey, will attempt to make history. For the first time ever, a black telephone worker will attempt to get elected to the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), Local 827 Executive Board. In 2004, a black worker running for union office hardly sounds ground breaking. What makes this situation different?

The vast majority of tele-communication workers across the country belong to the Communications Workers of America (CWA), a primarily telephone industry union. But in New Jersey, the telephone craftsmen belong to the IBEW, a primarily electrical workers union. While some clerical workers are in the union, it is dominated by the “outside” installation and maintenance technicians, the linemen, and the construction departments. These craft positions have historically been dominated by white, male workers and is in keeping with the conservative and craft-oriented history of the IBEW. Historically, the union leadership throughout the state, particularly at its highest levels, has been overwhelmingly white, male and conservative.

IBEW-Local 827 is a state-wide local divided into six geographic regions. Each region or unit elects one member to the statewide executive board. This position is a full-time, union paid position. The four state-wide elected officers (president, vice-president, treasurer and recording secretary) coupled with the six representatives elected by the local units makes up the statewide executive board. In the entire history of Local 827, there has never been a black worker on the executive board.

While all the geographic regions have remained largely white, in unit 4 (Essex County area) black workers have come to predominate. This is due to the fact that Essex County contains the black majority cities of Newark, Irvington, and East Orange. The telephone garages serving these areas contain the largest concentrations of black workers in the state.

Three years ago, black telephone workers in that area formed an organization called the “Black Telephone Workers for Justice (BTWFJ).” Leading the fight to force Verizon to make Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday a paid holiday, leading the fight to get black workers more involved in union activities, and leading the fight to get black telephone workers more involved in community struggles and issues, the organization has won the respect of many black and white workers.

One of the key objectives of the BTWFJ was to get black workers more involved in the life of the union. They persuaded black workers to start going to union meetings and eventually got some black workers elected to lower level, shop steward positions. The participation of black workers in the life of the union changed union dynamics in Unit 4 as they began to demand that the union leadership take up the struggle to win Dr. King’s birthday as a paid holiday. In addition they got a resolution passed making the IBEW-Local 827 Executive Board give $1500 to the “Charleston Five,” a group of longshoremen fired and charged with rioting during a protest to defend their jobs. The black workers’ participation was instrumental in getting Unit 4 to pass a resolution opposing the war in Iraq. The progressive positions that began to come out of Unit 4 due to the influence of the black workers led to them calling Unit 4 the “conscience of the local.”

Ron Washington, President of the BTWFJ, said “before we began organizing, most black workers did not go to union meetings because they considered the union a ‘white’ thing. All of that has changed, as our participation has changed the dynamic.” Washington continued by saying “not only have we raised issues and demands that are of particular interest to black workers, but we have proven by the positions that we’ve taken that we have been fighters in the interests of all workers.” Washington pointed to the fact that two years ago they led a walk out of black and white workers that shut down two garages, after a black worker was mis-treated. They have also led protests when white workers were mis-treated by management, which is in keeping with the mission statement of the BTWFJ, calling for black workers to fight for unity with all workers, at home and abroad.

The BTWFJ has organized black telephone workers to be more active off the job as well as on the job. They have supported community struggles against police brutality and racial profiling, and in the process formed a sister relationship with the Newark area, “Peoples Organization for Progress.” They have been active in the fight for reparations and active in their support for the struggles of black students at Seton Hall and Rutgers University.

“Walking on two legs,” being active both on the job and off, has allowed black telephone workers to gain confidence in their leadership capacities. The three years of organizing has positioned them to take a stab at taking power in their local unit. Ron Washington, president of the BTWFJ, will run for the executive board position from Unit 4. This will be the first time that a black worker has run for executive board and is a history making step. If Washington wins, it will be the first time in history that a black worker takes a position on the local 827 executive board, and will be a big step forward in the fight for black representation at all levels of the union structure.

Washington feels that his chances are good, given his reputation as a fighter and the fact that Unit 4 is majority black. “What can’t be done on a state-wide level, can certainly be done on a local level,” said Washington. "We just have to run a professional and well-organized campaign that gets out the vote," he said.

On the state-wide level, four positions will be up for election: president, vice-president, treasurer and recording secretary. Without a doubt, those positions will be refilled with a white worker. On the local level, six positions will be up for election: executive board representative, two chief shop-stewards, unit chair, unit vice-chair and recording secretary. In Unit 4 these positions are currently held by white workers, despite the black majority in the unit. The BTWFJ is not only running Washington for executive board, but also a slate to take the other five positions. ‘This is a reflection that we are serious about starting a new chapter in the history of our local,” said Washington. “Our area is a black majority, therefore we think that we should have black majority rule,” said Washington. “It is intolerable that there should be all white leadership in a majority black area,” he said.

The black telephone workers feel that a change in leadership that reflects the social composition of the workforce is necessary but not sufficient. The black workers feel that their program for leading the union in a new direction, a program for militant, fight-back, socially active trade unionism is a program that the current leadership does not possess. “It’s not solely about skin color, but our program that is more important,” said Washington. “We want to build a local that unites with the struggles in our communities; gets our members more active in the life of the union, building our unity and strength, so that we can stand up to Verizon; and unites with other workers at home and abroad. Our current leadership does not have this program. This is the real difference between the current leadership and the leadership that we want to provide,” said Washington.

The history that the black telephone workers are attempting to make is about just representation and correction of a historical evil, but it is also about a program of militant, fight-back unionism, so needed by the U.S. trade union movement. Run, black telephone workers, run!

The Black Telephone Workers for Justice can be contacted at blacktel4justice (at) aol.com.

Please feel free to use this article

Ron Washington, 1/3/04


------------------------------------------------------------------------
11) 9 Articles About Job Destruction

---------------<<<>>>---------------
JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER
by Rob Sanchez
www.ZaZona.com
---------------<<<>>>---------------

Article 1:
www.freep.com/money/business/tool30_20031230.htm
Tool-die shops fighting for life In conversation, Flannery named one competitor after another that has
gone under. He, like many other toolmakers, blames China. "I know I
sound conspiratorial, but the Chinese are killing us. History shows
that a country needs to be able to build its own swords. Right now
there are lot of toolmakers in Detroit that haven't gone under only
because they didn't want to ruin their employees' Christmas," Flannery
said. He paused, then added, "but wait until January."

Article 2:
www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-offshore4jan04,1,2065017.story
l=la-home-business
'Offshoring' Trend Casting a Wider Net
The outsourcing movement is defying conventional wisdom about what
positions are immune from export

Article 3:
www.csmonitor.com/2003/1229/p01s03-usec.html
Around the globe, new 'Silicon Valleys' emerge
As software jobs move to India and beyond, California could lose its
footing as tech startup capital of the world.
Every so often, Walter Wilson wonders if he should become a plumber.
It's not that he is repressing a deep affection for S-traps or
porcelain fixtures. Rather, it's the fact that, to him, the Silicon
Valley of old is dead.

Article 4:
www.nytimes.com/2004/01/03/business/03consult.html
Offshore Services Grow in Lean Times
When Procter & Gamble employees forget a computer password or need to
change the number of dependents they claim for tax purposes, they call
one of three places: Manila; San Jose, Costa Rica; or Newcastle,
England. Procter & Gamble, with about 98,000 employees in more than 80
countries, needed two years to consolidate its back office and
personnel operations - and help from a slew of consultants.
Article 5:
www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/040112/opinion/12dobbs.htm
By Lou Dobbs The politics of immigration In his year-end news conference, President Bush called for an
"immigration policy that helps match any willing employer with any
willing employee." For all the world, the president's idea of an
immigration policy sounds like a national job fair for those businesses
and farms that don't want to pay a living wage and for those foreigners
who correctly think U.S. border security is a joke and who are willing
to break our laws to live here.

Article 6:
www.business-standard.com/today/printpage.asp
MNCs to get tax break for BPO income Subhomoy Bhattacharjee in New Delhi The finance ministry has decided to exempt multinationals with business
process outsourcing (BPO) subsidiaries in India from paying tax. The
impact: Big relief for companies like GE, Dell, American Express and
Hewlett-Packard
Article 7:
www.iht.com/articles/123372.html
Coming to terms with the logic of outsourcing So earlier this year Thibodeau founded another company, White Label,
with a different mission: to help U.S. technology companies subcontract
work to India. "Not only are Indian companies a third of the cost, but
they actually are better," Thibodeau said in a telephone interview from
his office outside Boston. "It's really kind of scary."

Article 8:
www.benningtonbanner.com/Stories/0,1413,104~8670~1803415,00.html
Losing good-paying jobs is no boon They are good-paying jobs, bringing in about $16 an hour before
benefits, according to Lance Matteson, executive director of the
Bennington County Industrial Corp. The Vermont plant is the only one
closing in a consolidation caused by "global competition." Bennington's
jobs are going north to Mississuagua, Ontario.In fact, the loss of U.S.
Tsubaki is a huge blow to Bennington County and the state. These are
the kinds of jobs that allow Vermonters to support their families. They
pay livable wages, not McWages.

Article 9:
newwork.com/Pages/Opinion/Raynor/Middle%20Class.html
Global Outsourcing and the Disappearing Middle Class
How adversely impacted is the middle-class in the United States when
jobs are sent abroad?

------------------------------------

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------------------------------------------------------------------------
12) CLG News

Breaking News and Commentary from Citizens for Legitimate Government
January 4, 2004
www.legitgov.org/
All articles, dates, and links from summaries below are here:
legitgov.org/index.html
Please contribute today, for January expenses!! We need funds to continue. Thank you.

Secret police force to be set up in Iraq --Nine months after the end of Saddam Hussein's regime and his feared intelligence force, Iraq is to get a secret police force again - courtesy of Washington. The Bush Dictatorship will fund the agency in its latest bid to root out the 'Baathist loyalists' behind the insurgency in parts of Iraq. The force will cost up to $US3 billion ($A4 billion) over the next three years.

Hussein's capture: was a deal brokered behind the scenes? When it emerged that the Kurds had captured the Iraqi former leader, the US celebrations evaporated. David Pratt asks whether a secret political trade-off has been engineered --"It was two weeks ago that the Sunday Herald revealed how a Kurdish special forces unit belonging to the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) had spearheaded and tracked down Saddam, sealing off the al-Dwar farmhouse long 'before the arrival of the US forces'. PUK leader Jalal Talabani had chosen to leak the news and details of the operation’s commander, Qusrut Rasul Ali, to the Iranian media long before Saddam’s capture was reported by the mainstream Western press or confirmed by the US military."

Who forged the Niger uranium papers? --by Don Sellar "Of all the news stories the Star published in 2003, the disputed tale of an Iraqi quest for nuclear weapons ranks as the most perplexing... Journalism is supposed to be a search for truth. Yet there are few signs the story is being pursued with vigour."

Pentagon to Washington Post Reporter Ricks: Get Lost --When George Bush’s Pentagon doesn’t like what a reporter writes, it attempts a preemptive strike. In the case of Tom Ricks, military reporter for the Washington Post, the Pentagon took the attack right to the heart of the enemy. Defense Department spokesman Larry DiRita first sent a letter of complaint to the Post; then he met with the paper’s top editors to press his points.

Controlling what we hear from Iraq --by Dahr Jamail (Electronic Iraq) "I learned yesterday that one of the main sites which posts the writings of independent journalists and activists in Iraq, electronicIraq.net, has been banned from at least one of the US military bases in Iraq. Celebrate free speech, read a banned website! Like other repressive dictatorships and regimes, the US military has now followed suit in Iraq by attempting to select what its personnel should and should not read."

Iraqi Judges Get Trained for War Crimes [They should start by trying the world's biggest international terrorists: Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Rove] Judge Qasem Ayash, one of 100 Iraqi jurists fresh out of a crash course in international law, says it was a waste of time.

Speaking of W-ar criminals: Iraq 'test case' in terror fight, Blair tells troops --The invasion of Iraq was a test case in the global fight against terror, British Prime Minister Poodle Tony Blair said today while making a 'surprise' visit to British troops. Meanwhile, his top envoy in the country warned of bigger, more sophisticated attacks by the Iraqi resistance. [Test this.]

British soldiers 'kicked Iraqi prisoner to death' --by Robert Fisk in Baghdad "Eight young Iraqis arrested in Basra were kicked and assaulted by British soldiers, one of them so badly that he died in British custody, according to military and medical records seen by The Independent on Sunday." [When the real criminals are our prisoners...]

UK Soldiers Kicked Iraqi Prisoner to Death - Report --Eight young Iraqis arrested in the southern Iraqi town of Basra last year were assaulted by British soldiers, and one of them died of his injuries, a British newspaper said in its Sunday edition.

US troops kill four Iraqis --Four Iraqis, including a woman and a child, were killed Saturday when a US convoy opened fire on a car trying to overtake it in the northern town of Tikrit, police said.

More than 250,000 to be flown in and out over the next 4 months --Even with the recent reduction in attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq, war planners are eyeing stepped-up air patrols and other security measures to safely rotate fresh troops into the country early next year out of fear the massive turnover will give resistance fighters a new set of potential targets, according to defense officials.

Extended Iraq Duty Expected for More Troops --To stem an exodus of personnel, the Army may prohibit additional soldiers in crucial units from retiring, leaving when enlistment ends or being reassigned. Desperate to stretch its limited ranks, the Army is expected next week to prohibit still more soldiers now in Iraq and soon to be deployed there from leaving military service.

'Accidents' Outside Combat Take Toll on U.S. Military --It is not only Iraqi resistance that is cutting down U.S. forces at an alarming rate. Since the war started on March 20, more than 80 have died in noncombat accidents. That's nearly one-fifth of the total fatalities among soldiers.

Resistance fighters' attacks kill three US soldiers --Resistance fighters have killed three US soldiers in separate attacks in Iraq, the American military said today, and a top commander warned that resistance fighters' assaults were growing more sophisticated.

3 U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq attacks --Military bombs southern Baghdad to 'root out' resistance fighters --Resistance fighters hit a U.S. base in central Iraq with mortar shells, killing one American soldier and wounding two others, the military said Saturday. In a separate attack, resistance fighters set off a
 
 

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