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Labor not loyalty on May 1

Two key steps have helped to ruin May Day in the United States. First, Labor Day was created at a completely different time of year -- labor day without the struggle, labor day without the history, labor day without the labor movement. Second, Loyalty Day was created on May 1st.

"We Did Not Choose This War" and other hypocrisies

"We did not choose this war. This war came to us on 9/11. We don't go looking for a fight. But when we see our homeland violated, when we see our fellow citizens killed, then we understand what we have to do."

These are the words that President Obama used on Tuesday to describe the Afghanistan war, but they would have been more appropriately said by any Afghan citizen.

Coming out of the mouth of the President of the United States, these words are nothing more than nationalistic propaganda — designed to justify an aggressive war of choice launched against a sovereign nation. Somebody chose this war, and it certainly wasn't the Afghan people — 92% of whom have never even heard of the events of 9/11.

AIDS demonstration in New York City

The New York City Police Department arrested nine housing and AIDS activists Wednesday near City Hall, before the start of a march on Wall Street, which called on Mayor Bloomberg to improve services for those affected with HIV/AIDS, while demanding a new tax to fight the epidemic's global threat.

Chanting "Tax Wall Street. End AIDS," activists, all from advocacy group, Housing Works, chained themselves to a couch, sink and even a toilet, blocking Broadway traffic around noon.

However, using heavy duty chain cutters, police snapped demonstrators free after ten minutes, before dragging them off to awaiting vans.

The demonstration was a joint effort of Occupy Wall Street movement and the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) and was planned to commemorate the 25th anniversary of a demonstration protesting the steep cost of HIV medication.

Organizers estimated that at least 2,000 turned out for the trek to Trinity Church, overlooking Wall Street.

ACT-UP's Chip Ducket told the crowd that Wall Street can well afford a "Financial Speculative Tax," on shares, bonds and other financial transactions.

Ohio Super Max hunger strike continues and expands

Thursday, May 3. According to a level 5 prisoner participating in the hunger strike at Ohio State Penitentiary (OSP) there are forty-eight (48) prisoners who have refused nine meals and should be officially recognized as on hunger strike. Warden Bobby refused to comment or return calls requesting information about the hunger strike.

The prisoner's demands include the following:
1. Lower commissary prices. One striker writes: "Commissary items are permitted to be marked up.to 35% above retail, while many of us receive only $8 a month."
2. No more indefinite terms. Prisoners on the highest security level at OSP (level 5) currently have little prospects for reducing their security level and increasing privileges. "We are taken in front of a privilege review board every 90 days, yet can expect no [increase in] privilege for a year or longer" the hunger striker says of prisoners on Level 5B. Men on Level 5A have a privilege level review every six months, but there has been no increase in their privileges in recognition of good conduct for some time.

Kent State

This letter is in response to the articles covering the Justice Department's decision not to reopen the probe of the 1970 Kent State shootings.
Well, it appears the ghosts of Tin Soldiers and Nixon are coming back to the Kent State Campus.
First, your most ambitious students are being charged more money because they choose to take more credit hours {without any justification for the increased fees}. Second, the annual out-of-control beer party is put down by a armed SWAT team wearing similar uniforms as the Guardsman did 42 years ago {except that this time the tear gas is far more potent}. Now you have a Justice Department under the leadership of a Democratic President that decides they would rather look anywhere but at KSU or for that matter perhaps Dealey Plaza, the Lorraine Hotel and the Ambassador Hotel. Per the article: "The FBI's Cleveland office apparently destroyed the original Strubbe tape in 1979, according to the Justice Department." This begs the question: why wasn't it given to the Smithsonian Museum as a artifact of history? Why the rush to destroy the tape?

Per the article: "Some details of the altercation Allen identified on the

Keep college affordable

For millions of middle and working class families, a college education is the key to success and opportunity.
But it can be an expensive key. Many students are forced to take out thousands of dollars in loans to pursue their degree -- and if we don’t do something Congress is about to make that even harder.

Back in 2007, I helped to pass the College Cost Reduction and Access Act -- a bill that lowered the interest rate of Federal Direct Stafford Loans to 3.4% and made it that much easier for millions of students to take advantage of the opportunity America’s colleges and universities offer.

But now that opportunity is in jeopardy. Unless we extend this provision immediately, these rates will double to 6.8% -- and make keys to success for potential students across the country too expensive to afford.

No one should be denied the opportunity to succeed because of financial constraints. That’s why I’m joining with Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar to keep student loan rates right where they are -- and I’m asking you to join us.

State of Fear

This was the headline: “Zimmerman, Martin’s parents to face off in court.”

The words, of course, merely summed up a moment in the news cycle last week. We, the news-consuming public, were primed – by CBS, but it could have been any mainstream outlet – for a tidbit of potential drama the next day in the hottest murder trial around right now. But in the process, we were also silently reminded, yet again, that everything is spectacle. At the level at which we call ourselves a nation, nothing is serious, not even matters of life and death.

There’s something so painful about all this – painful beyond the horror of the crime itself, or the national murder rate. The 24-7 media trivialize the stakes and gleefully report the “courtroom drama” as a sporting event; but even more distressingly, the legal bureaucracy swings into motion without the least awareness of any value beyond its own procedures. It all happens with a certainty of purpose that generates the illusion that things are under control and social order prevails.

25 Ohio Super Max prisoners start a hunger strike

On Monday, April 30, at least twenty five prisoners at Ohio State Penitentiary (OSP) began a hunger strike. They are demanding that the Warden meet and negotiate with them for improved conditions in Ohio's super-max prison. These hunger strikers say they intend to continue to refuse food until their demands are met. Another, larger group of prisoners will show symbolic solidarity with the hunger strikers, and workers outside of prison by also refusing food on a one-day fast tomorrow, for May Day, the international day of worker solidarity and resistance.

Information about the hunger strike is limited at this time, because super-max prisoners have very constrained access to communication with the outside world. The hunger strikers are asking supporters of their cause to participate by calling Warden David Bobby (330 743-0700) and ODRC director Gary Mohr (614-752-1164). The hunger strikers are asking people to encourage Warden Bobby to meet with the prisoners and take their demands seriously.

Thaksin wants to avoid assassination and prison in Thailand

BANGKOK, Thailand -- Fugitive former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra hopes assassins will stop hunting him, and a deal can be arranged allowing him to dodge imprisonment and return home a free man.

Mr. Thaksin also hopes his enemies will stop accusing him of presiding over a regime which allegedly included 2,600 extrajudicial executions during his failed "war on drugs" in 2003, plus personal corruption and other wrongdoing.

Ultimately, he wants this predominantly Buddhist society to twist the constitution or the judicial system -- or create other loopholes -- to cancel his two-year prison sentence imposed for a conflict-of-interest deal which enabled his wealthy, politically savvy wife to purchase government-owned real estate in Bangkok during 2003.

Mr. Thaksin, now divorced, dwells in self-exile amid five-star splendor in Dubai.

"He has already told the media that he is willing to return, to go through the judicial process," said Defense Minister Sukumpol Suwanatat in April.

Ohioans rally against "War on Women!"

Chants of “Women’s rights, Human rights,” & “Our bodies belong to us, not you,” echoed off the walls of the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus this Saturday, as hundreds of women (and men) rallied, demanding an end the GOP dominated legislature’s “War on Women!” The rally had been organized by a new group, WomenUnite, which was called together, according director Cathy Kaelin, to “combat the growing attacks on women’s rights in Ohio.”

“You are standing on historic ground,” stated Brian Rothenburg, Director of Progress Ohio. “96 years ago today thousands of women stood right here, without the right to vote, with no health care, no voice and no rights, they came to this building and stated that ‘they are Americans, too!’ Because they fought, we have a voice today. But the heirs of those who barred women from voting then are again trying to take our votes away, take our rights to health care away. We stand here united to say again; We Are Americans, too, & We Won’t Go Back!”

While reminiscent of the rallies for women’s rights in the 1960s, the large numbers of young women, children at the rally was striking.

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