Cuba is Missing… From US Reports on the International Response to Haiti’s Earthquake
by Dave Lindorff
First Responders: 400 Cuban Doctors and 573 Haitian Doctors trained in Cuba in Haiti before the Disaster
The Story of America’s Haiti
Published on Thursday, January 14, 2010 by CommonDreams.org
What You’re Not Hearing about Haiti (But Should Be)
by Carl Lindskoog
In the hours following Haiti’s devastating earthquake, CNN, the New York Times and other major news sources adopted a common interpretation for the severe destruction: the 7.0 earthquake was so devastating because it struck an urban area that was extremely over-populated and extremely poor. Houses “built on top of each other” and constructed by the poor people themselves made for a fragile city. And the country’s many years of underdevelopment and political turmoil made the Haitian government ill-prepared to respond to such a disaster.
True enough. But that’s not the whole story. What’s missing is any explanation of why there are so many Haitians living in and around Port-au-Prince and why so many of them are forced to survive on so little. Indeed, even when an explanation is ventured, it is often outrageously false such as a former U.S. diplomat’s testimony on CNN that Port-au-Prince’s overpopulation was due to the fact that Haitians, like most Third World people, know nothing of birth control.
Monsanto Genetically Modified Corn Causes Organ Failure in Rats
Monsanto’s GMO Corn Linked To Organ Failure, Study Reveals
Huffington Post | Katherine Goldstein/Gazelle Emami Posted: 01-12-10 05:30 PM
In a study released by the International Journal of Biological Sciences, analyzing the effects of genetically modified foods on mammalian health, researchers found that agricultural giant Monsanto’s GM corn is linked to organ damage in rats.
December 13th National Call-In Day to Congress: No Tax on Workers Healthcare Benefits
Friends,
This Wednesday, January 13th, is a national day of action for health care reform. We must keep on fighting; we can still win strong reforms.
We are standing strong for our priorities for real reform and we must have insurance industry accountability and real affordability for American families in the final bill. Please join us at two important actions on Wednesday –
Affordable coverage must be a priority in merging the House and Senate Reform Bills. It’s what the American people want.
Sponsored by Healthcare for America Now (HCAN), Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the Pennsylvania Health Access Network (PHAN)
and also
COME PHONEBANK WITH US for National Call Congress Day
Call Dave (412-370-5247) for details/to RSVP
International Association of Machinists (IAM) Opposes Tax on Healthcare Benefits
Machinists Union Leaders Vote to Oppose Health Benefits Tax
Mon. January 11, 2010
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Washington, D.C., January 11, 2010 – The Executive Council of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) has voted unanimously to oppose any health care reform legislation that is funded by taxing the value of workers’ existing health care benefits.
“For decades, IAM members exchanged substantial wage increases for the best possible health insurance,” said IAM President Tom Buffenbarger. “Now, in a bizarre turn of events, their insurance premiums will be subject to a forty percent excise tax if the Senate version of health care reform becomes law. Democratic leaders have the power to stop this travesty and I urge them to do so, quickly and completely.”
“IAM members are rightfully outraged over the bait and switch tactics at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue,” said Buffenbarger. “They were promised health care reform. Now they face health care deformed by backroom deals.”
No single issue brought more union members onto last year’s campaign trail than Republican threats to tax health care benefits, and the Democrats’ pledge to protect those benefits.
“Like NAFTA, the health care excise tax is an issue with the potential to reverberate for years,” said Buffenbarger. “Machinists have long memories. And they will long remember who taxed their benefits after pledging on the campaign trail not to do so.”
The IAM is among the largest industrial trade unions in North America, representing nearly 700,000 active and retired members in dozens of industries. For more information about the IAM, visit www.goiam.org.
Pres. Obama Appoints Arch-criminal to “Investigate” US Intelligence Role in Christmas Airline Bombing Attempt
President Obama, the CIA and the Master of the Cover-Up
by: Melvin A. Goodman, t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed
Monday 11 January 2010
Former Deputy CIA Director John Edward McLaughlin
(Image: Jared Rodriguez / t r u t h o u t; Adapted: CIA)
The Obama administration quietly announced Friday the appointment of John McLaughlin, former deputy CIA director, to head the internal investigation of the intelligence failures that led to the Christmas Day attempted bombing of a Delta airliner headed for Detroit as well as the events leading to the shootings at Fort Hood in November.
With this appointment, President Barack Obama has assured that the culture of intelligence cover-up will continue. McLaughlin has participated in and sought to cover-up many of the CIA’s most egregious failures and misdeeds of the past decade. When he left the CIA, he then served as the agency’s chief apologist.
Financial Reform: Obama Opposes Bill to Rein in Speculators
McCain gets it, Obama doesn’t
by Robert Scheer
TruthDig.com
1/6/10
Maybe I got it wrong. During the presidential campaign I wrote columns blasting Sen. John McCain for siding with the big bankers on deregulation, citing his choosing ex-Sen. Phil Gramm, currently a vice chairman of the Swiss-owned banking giant UBS, as his presidential campaign chair. Barack Obama, on the other hand, repeatedly blasted Gramm and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which the Texas Republican had pushed through Congress, with President Bill Clinton’s support-legislation that repealed the Glass-Steagall Act and radically deregulated the financial industry.
But now the roles are reversed, and it is McCain who, along with Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., has sponsored a bill to repeal Gramm’s legislation, while Obama seeks to preserve it.
Go to next page for Video presentation and rest of the story…
Continue reading Financial Reform: Obama Opposes Bill to Rein in Speculators
Fighting the Cutbacks: March and Rally in San Francisco Jan. 5th
Vigil for Peace every Saturday 1pm at Beaver County Courthouse
One for All, All for One – Fighting for a Contract in San Francisco
Hotel Workers, Trumka Arrested at Sit-In for Fair Contract |
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by Mike Hall, Jan 6, 2010
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More than 100 union members, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and UNITEHERE! President John Wilhelm were arrested at a sit-in demanding justice and a fair contract for San Francisco hotel workers last night. The workers have been without a contract since August.
The sit-in in front of the Hilton San Francisco followed a march by nearly 1,000 members of UNITEHERE! Local 2, other union members and community and political supporters. Says Ingrid Carp, a cook for 29 years at the Hilton:
“We’re determined as ever to win a good contract. It’s wrong for corporations to position themselves to make billions with the coming economic recovery, and expect us to go backward.”
The action is part of a campaign to win fair contracts at several national hotel chains, including Hilton, Hyatt and Starwood. The profitable chains are using the recession as an excuse to demand health care benefit cuts in contract talks with more than 16,000 workers at dozens of hotels in San Francisco, Chicago and other cities.
Continue reading One for All, All for One – Fighting for a Contract in San Francisco
