It would appear that Fox News doesn't like Obama, it is quite refreshing to here such an anti-war message, even if it is from such an obnoxious corporate entity.
Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk
views and poetry from an anarchist perspective.
Read the full report HERE:The Obama administration has selectively used intelligence to justify military strikes on Syria, former military officers with access to the original intelligence reports say, in a manner that goes far beyond what critics charged the Bush administration of doing in the run-up to the 2003 Iraq war.According to these officers, who served in top positions in the United States, Britain, France, Israel, and Jordan, a Syrian military communication intercepted by Israel’s famed Unit 8200 electronic intelligence outfit has been doctored so that it leads a reader to just the opposite conclusion reached by the original report.The doctored report was picked up on Israel’s Channel 2 TV on Aug. 24, then by Focus magazine in Germany, the Times of Israel, and eventually by The Cable in Washington, DC.According to the doctored report, the chemical attack was carried out by the 155th Brigade of the 4th Armored Division of the Syrian Army, an elite unit commanded by Maher al-Assad, the president’s brother.However, the original communication intercepted by Unit 8200 between a major in command of the rocket troops assigned to the 155th Brigade of the 4th Armored Division, and the general staff, shows just the opposite.The general staff officer asked the major if he was responsible for the chemical weapons attack. From the tone of the conversation, it was clear that “the Syrian general staff were out of their minds with panic that an unauthorized strike had been launched by the 155th Brigade in express defiance of their instructions,” the former officers say.According to the transcript of the original Unit 8200 report, the major “hotly denied firing any of his missiles” and invited the general staff to come and verify that all his weapons were present.The report contains a note at the end that the major was interrogated by Syrian intelligence for three days, then returned to command of his unit. “All of his weapons were accounted for,” the report stated.
Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.ukKeep Out! - The 78th Thessaloniki International Trade FairInside the 78th Thessaloniki International Trade Fair the prime minister is giving a speech as prime minister have done for decades on this date. I will not bother to follow the speech, either in person or on TV as Samaras's public addresses are usually leaked well in advance and amount to a little more than a series of soundbites linked together by the slightest of rhetorical devices, more akin to bloated TV commercials than anything Demosthenes would recognise.
"The economy is coming round, recovery is on its way, the sacrifices of the people are finally paying off."It's old, old stuff made all the more unconvincing by the fact that every prime minister has sad the same since the financial crisis began in 2009. Yes, the rate of decline in the Greek economy has slowed down to "just" 3.8% but unemployment is still rising, set to reach 30% by the end of the year if the latest Greek trade union research is to be believed.
On the other hand while Samaras was addressing the nation, safely ensconced behind thousands of riot police the people next to me in the cafe are discussing a mutual acquaintance;
"They're looking for a IT graduate, part time, 5 to 9 and you know what they're offering? 200 euros a month, without insurance, 200!"
This is is the economic success story that the government and the foreign press are so happy to promote, a country in which salaries do not even begin to cover living costs, even for people with years of experience and advanced qualifications. An economy where millions are unable to start a family or even afford basic health care or a pension. Even if the books balance by the end of the decade the macroeconomic damage being wrought will last for a generation.
By midday the prime minister will have returned to Athens, his presence having left behind little than a bunch of high sounding promises and a lot of disgruntled commuters. The Trade Fair once again has become the political plaything of the leadership which fails to see that turning a city into war zone every year is not the best way to encourage international trade and especially not Greece's image abroad.
We will remain ungovernable
Fri, 09/06/2013 - 22:48 -- Anonymous (not verified)The current border policies of the ruling elite are cruel, oppressive, revanchist. Over the course of the elction campaign we have vandalised the electorate offices of Kelvin Thomson, Martin Ferguson, Josh Frydenberg, Anna Bourke, Brendan O'Connor, Simon Crean, Mark Dreyfus, Kelly O'Dwyer, Mike Symon and Andrew Robb; they are complicit.The politicians and bosses have driven wedges between us, trying to convince us there is an enemy in people from across the sea. The real enemy, of course, is those who seek to rule us. Our sisters and brothers, the 'boat people', have been asking for our solidarity for years. They have petitioned, protested, hunger-striked, self-harmed and suicided. But help has not come. The only rational response left is to riot.We are privileged citizens in occupied land and we stand to benefit from this racist approach. But this won't do. We don't accept this reality and we never will. It doesn't matter who we are. What matters is that we resist. That we show resistance is possible. It's the right – the only – way to act in such terrible times. In doing so we hope to inspire others to break the spell of passivity, together we can turn the world upside down.We stand by the rioters, the 'boat people', the border-hoppers and 'illegals' in this land and throughout the world. We stand by them til all the prisons are ash and the borders finally broken.Whoever is elected, we remain,Ungovernable
Read the full story HERE:"Following the broadcasting of the images, distributed by the Free Syrian Army and echoed by the US and french services, of the massacre in Ghouta, Alaouite families of Latakia have filed a complaint for murder.Some of these videos were filmed and posted on Youtube before the events they picture [1].
They show children suffocated by a chemical intoxication that can’t possibly be sarin gas (the latter provokes yellow drool, not white drool).
The children do not correspond to a sample of the population : they are all almost of same age and have light hair. They are not accompanied by their grieving families.------"
Read the full article HERE:
In years gone by the political leadership would take the chance to make lavish promises and announce grand public works in the city. Indeed this approach proved so popular that five PMs in a row announced that, unlike their tardy predecessors, they would ensure that Thessaloniki's promised subway would start the following year.
Despite the fact that the country has yet to reach budget targets and is faced with the prospect of requesting yet more bail out cash, government officials and their friends in the media have once again started making promises that public works project, long stalled for lack of cash will resume, a minimum guaranteed income will be introduced and the country will be flowing with milk and honey before the month is out.
On the other the list of those unhappy with New Democracy and PASOK's austerity measures continues to grow and after five years of economic contraction, broken promises and despite claims that the worst is over few believe that Athens is in a position to say no to its creditors demands for yet more cuts.
So the stage is set for a potentially violent showdown on Saturday when the prime minister will give a speech surrounded by anything up to 8,000 police and the streets fill with angry Greeks.
According to the reports from FWCUI and the union of leather workers around 200 employees, including both daily- waged and contracted workers, have been dismissed without due notice by the administration of the State Company of the Leather Industries. Many of the workers have had at least six years long service by the time of dismissal. Workers and their union are mobilizing to pressure the administration to rescind this decision.Read the full article HERE:
As a state-owned company the employer responds to the Ministry of Industry, however when the workers contacted the Ministry they were told that it was the decision issued by the administration and not the Ministry.
It’s 3:15 am in Bhimnagar, India. With the family’s newest infant addition latched to her side, Kalawati* wakes up her husband, six-year-old daughter, and eight-year-old son to eat breakfast – a small handful of rice. The meal won’t satisfy anyone’s hunger but it’s all Kalawati’s children will eat until 1pm. They’re not heading to school; the whole family needs to begin their 18-hour work day at the brick kiln before the sun rises.
Today will be the same for Kalawati’s children as the last – hauling buckets of water, mixing mud to make bricks, putting the mixture into brick moulds, a lunch of molasses and water, stacking bricks into piles, digging up soil for the next day’s bricks. At the end of the day, both children will try to rub the ache out of their backs while Kalawati helplessly suggests they try walking around to ease the pain knowing that it won’t work.
That’s not the extreme in the possible tortures of a day in the life of a child slave in India. There are days when children are beaten to force them into submission; days when a mother is forced to watch a brick kiln owner dangle her son over a 700°C flame simply to frighten her. Rather, it’s just the typical day that the Indian Parliament could act on to make a distant memory for every Indian child forever.
The Indian Parliament has extended their session to Friday, 6 September to progress a number of important bills before they prepare for election. They are paying attention to what voters are saying as well as the opinions of activists rallying all over the world in defence of the child slaves of India.
Kalawati won’t have the chance to speak out for her children, but you can – tell the Indian Parliament to pass the Child and Adolescent Labour Abolition Bill TODAY: http://walkfree.org/indiachildslavery
If passed, the Child and Adolescent Labour Abolition Bill would:
1) prohibit employment of children under 14 years of age;
2) outline harsh sentences for violators; and
3) provide for monitoring of suspected cases of child slavery.
This legislation would put an end to the enslavement of children in India, but it risks not passing without a demonstration of mass public support.
Will you help? Take action now: http://walkfree.org/indiachildslavery
Kalawati wants the same futures for her children as every other parent. And she has one more wish – that her children will know a life outside of slavery.
Thank you,
Debra, Ryan, Jessica, Kate, Mich, Amy and the Walk Free Team
*Name changed to protect identity
Read the full article HERE:How the state plans to shut down dissent
Later this month, the Trades Union Congress is backing a march and rally in Manchester against the ConDems’ carve-up of the NHS. Next year, a repeat campaign could be deemed illegal under legislation due for debate in parliament today.The TUC is not exactly a scaremongering organisation. So when general secretary Frances O’Grady warns that the Transparency of Lobbying, non-Party Campaigning, and Trade Union Administration Bill is an “attack on free speech worthy of an authoritarian dictatorship” there is just cause for alarm.She points out that the Bill has been drawn so widely that it will “shut down dissent for the year before an election”, adding: “No organisation that criticises a government policy will be able to overdraw their limited ration of dissent without fearing a visit from the police.”
How the state plans to shut down dissent
Later this month, the Trades Union Congress is backing a march and rally in Manchester against the ConDems’ carve-up of the NHS. Next year, a repeat campaign could be deemed illegal under legislation due for debate in parliament today.
The TUC is not exactly a scaremongering organisation. So when general secretary Frances O’Grady warns that the Transparency of Lobbying, non-Party Campaigning, and Trade Union Administration Bill is an “attack on free speech worthy of an authoritarian dictatorship” there is just cause for alarm.
She points out that the Bill has been drawn so widely that it will “shut down dissent for the year before an election”, adding: “No organisation that criticises a government policy will be able to overdraw their limited ration of dissent without fearing a visit from the police.”
- See more at: http://www.aworldtowin.net/blog/how-state-plans-to-shut-down-dissent.html#sthash.0K5yduAp.dpuf
Read the full article HERE:
Moutzouris was sued because of his role as a vice-chancellor of the Athens Polytechnic, at the time when this hosted the Athens Indymedia servers. Michael-Matsas was sued because of the anti-fascist slogans chanted by members of the EEK in May 2009. By upholding the GD suing and bringing the case to court, the Greek “justice” system has scored a Europe-wide first in persecuting anti-fascist discourse.
In response, hundreds of anti-fascists gathered in solidarity outside the Athens Courthouse this morning. Inside the courts, the persecuting “witnesses” (Skordeli and the now GD MP, Panagiotaros), were nowhere to be seen.
---- Employee owners lose their protection from unfair dismissal and rights to redundancy pay and flexible working, making it easier and cheaper to be sacked. In exchange, they receive tax-free shares valued at between £2,000 and £50,000 - though they are not guaranteed equal voting rights or dividends like other shareholders.
There is no guarantee that the shares would gain or even hold their value, so some individuals could end up trading basic employment rights for worthless shares, warns the TUC.----