http://www.liveleak.com/browse?channel_token=487_1302947409 Items in channel 'tymoss' Thu, 23 May 2013 01:23:14 -0400 Liveleak http://edge.liveleak.com/80281E/u/u/ll2/logo.gif http://www.liveleak.com/browse?channel_token=487_1302947409 Sat, 06 Oct 2012 09:58:38 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=5e9_1349531761 tymoss http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2012/09/10/pol-cp-avro-arrow.html Avro Arrow considered as F-35 alternative, documents showHarper government dismissed famous Canadian design as 'not a viable option' for CF-18 replacementThe Canadian Press Posted: Sep 10, 2012 8:53 AM ET Last Updated: Sep 10, 2012 8:52 AM ET Read 158comments158 Volunteers open hangar doors to reveal a full-scale replica of the Avro Arrow at the Toronto Aerospace museum in 2006. Documents show reviving the Arrow as a replacement for Canada's aging CF-18 fleet was considered but rejected by the Harper government. (Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press) A Canadian company is seeking to go back in time to help fly Canada's air force into the future. Documents obtained by Global News indicate an update to the storied CF-105 Avro Arrow was put forward as an alternative to the purchase of F-35 stealth fighter jets. And among the project's champions is one of Canada's top soldiers, retired Maj.Gen. Lewis MacKenzie. The Arrow was an advanced, all-weather supersonic interceptor jet that was developed in the 1950s. Several prototypes were built and flight tests were conducted, but the project was abruptly shut down in 1959 and the aircraft never went into production. MacKenzie told Global that the Arrow's basic design and platform still exceed any current fighter jet and it is perfect for Canada's needs. "It's an attack aircraft. It's designed for attacking ground targets and its stealth is most effective against short range radar, protecting ground targets," MacKenzie said. "What we need in Canada is something that can go to the edge of our airspace, from a sovereignty point of view, and be able to catch up with intruders." The plan to build an updated Arrow in Canada instead of buying into an international deal for a fleet of F-35s was originally put before the Harper Conservatives in 2010 by a company called Bourdeau Industries, which has offices in the U.K. and Canada. The proposal, which was updated in 2012, suggested the plane could fly 20,000 feet higher than the F-35, soar twice as fast and would cost less. For example, the proposal said that the total cost of the Arrow program would be $11.73 billion, compared to the $16 billion the federal government says the F-35 program will cost. Arrow 'not viable option': FantinoThat F-35 figure has been disputed by the auditor general and parliamentary budget officer , who peg the true cost of the new stealth fighters at closer to $25 billion. The Arrow project would also create a made-in-Canada plane and an industry that would add thousands of jobs and billions of dollars to the Canadian economy, the proposal's author wrote. "The government of Canada is in a position to project foreign policy initiatives within the global community while simultaneously leading Canada's socio-economic capabilities to rise to real security, defence and industrial policy challenges at home and abroad," the proposal said. But in June, the government rejected the plan, saying too much money and time was required to execute it and the plane didn't meet the technical specifications required. "Unfortunately, what is proposed is not a viable option for Canada's next generation fighter," said a letter from Julian Fantino, who was then Canada's associate minister for national defence. Meanwhile, the plans for the F-35s remain on hold. Last spring the auditor general tore a strip off the government , accusing the Department of National Defence of hiding $10 billion in continuing costs for the fighter and the Public Works department of not doing enough homework to justify the purchase. Conservatives responded with a seven-point action plan that took responsibility for the plane away from defence, giving it to a secretariat at Public Works. Last week the government announced it has hired the accounting firm KPMG to crunch the numbers on the program . Related Stories Audit firm KPMG chosen to review F-35 costs In depth: The F-35 cost controversy CHARTS: Competing cost estimates add to F-35 confusion TIMELINE: F-35 fighter jet cost questions date back to 2010 MILEWSKI: Honey, I shrunk the F-35 cost estimates STEWART: Rethink the F-35s? Let's rethink the entire process STEWART: The F-35 fiasco and Ottawa's culture of secrecy F-35's exorbitant cost clouds its future 5 of Canada's biggest military deals The F-35 Lightning II Avro Arrow revisited2:21 MacKenzie talks jets11:34 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=5e9_1349531761 tymoss 50 Year old jet a possible replacement for the F-35? f-35,avro,arrow,canada Mon, 13 Aug 2012 20:57:01 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=4f7_1344905503 tymoss Seeing as how Obama is stripping you of your rights, and Mitt Romney would hand your cash to big business and basically do whatever the upper class tell him because theyre successful and you aint, VOTE HARVEY! Even if he doesnt win, a successful amount of votes will pave the way for future independents who wont throw your country down the shitter. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=4f7_1344905503 tymoss Americans: Take the everyman route! president,2012,obama,romney Tue, 17 Jul 2012 22:00:18 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=a32_1342576523 tymoss Everyone I know takes a whole pile of shit at the Manitoba Minn/ND border crossings. One asshole threatened to come to a friend of mines house now that he had his address and beat the shit out of him on his own time because he couldnt find any problems with them but "knew" they were doing something wrong. They really fucked this one up... Dont think to check the plates, passport or description. Name? done! Send out the roadblocks! GRAND FORKS -- A case of mistaken identity led to a wrongful arrest of a Manitoban by U.S. Border Patrol and Grand Forks police Monday morning. Several law-enforcement vehicles stopped traffic on Interstate 29 in Grand Forks shortly after 11 a.m. to arrest a man suspected of being wanted for attempted murder in North Carolina. It turned out the Manitoban, whose name was not released, had the same name as an alias used by a man wanted in North Carolina, Brian Pigg of the U.S. Border Patrol in Grand Forks said. The driver of a light blue van with Manitoba plates crossed into North Dakota Monday morning at Pembina. After passing through the border, the man travelled south, but U.S. Customs officers continued a routine check of his name and it matched an alias used by a suspect, Pigg said. "It was a delayed response," he said, part of the routine check of anyone crossing the border. Border Patrol agents and Grand Forks police and other officers were waiting for the van and pulled it over 30 minutes later. Dozens of vehicles were backed up in the southbound lanes as law enforcement officers made the arrest. The man was taken to the border patrol headquarters and fingerprinted. It quickly became clear he had nothing to do with the North Carolina crime and was sent on his way, Pigg said. "He's a resident of Canada," Pigg said. Was the man angry? "I don't know, but I would be," Pigg said. -- Grand Forks Herald http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/manitoban-arrested-by-mistake-in-grand-forks-162690016.html http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=a32_1342576523 tymoss US Border guards are stupid and hasty on the the 49th border, guards, DHS, Stupidity Wed, 27 Jun 2012 15:37:01 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=c69_1340825713 tymoss The end of a couple's relationship is believed to be the motive behind a murder-for-hire plot that was allegedly carried out a week ago, ending in the death of a 26-year-old Winnipeg woman. Winnipeg Police said this morning that their investigation has led them to believe Drake Moslenko, 27, hired his friend, 20-year-old Treyvonne Willis to kill Kaila Tran. Moslenko and Willis are both charged with first-degree murder and are in custody at the Provincial Remand Centre. Tran was attacked and stabbed on her way to her vehicle on the morning of June 20 in the parking lot of her Clayton Drive apartment in St. Vital. The young woman's screams alerted neighbours, who witnessed the attack and saw a suspect run off towards the Seine River. Witnesses said Moslenko was at the scene last week following the attack on Tran, holding her hand and sobbing. Eight days before she was killed, Tran posted on her Facebook wall: "Happy Birthday to My Big Bear Drake! Hope you're having a great night with the boys," she wrote. It was the last written post she made before her death. Police spokesman Const. Jason Michalyshen said Moslenko and Tran had been a couple for four years when they recently split up. "The two had recently agreed to split and as a result... a dispute did erupt," he said. Michalyshen said a witness came forward to allege that Moslenko approached Willis - a mutal friend - and offered to pay him to kill Tran. Moslenko is a former amateur baseball start, a budding rap artist who was involved in nightclub security. Michalyshen said Moslenko and Willis were not involved in the local gang community but were known to be involved in illicit drugs. Court records show Willis was out on bail on a drug dealing charge at the time of Tran's death. The police underwater search and recovery unit believe they recovered the weapon used in the attack in the Seine River. Michalyshen said murder-for-hire plots are rare but police are convinced this is what led to Tran's death. "The unique component of this (investigation) is just that," Michalyshen said. "It is unfortunate and incredibly tragic for Kaila and her family. As to how things escalated to the point where an individual would go to these lengths." Michalyshen said at this point investigators do not believe other individuals were involved in the scheme, but added the case remains under investigation. http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/Arrests-made-in-death-of-woman-killed-in-St-Vital-parking-lot-160523685.html http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=c69_1340825713 tymoss A different Treyvon in a different part of the world..... Is a total piece of shit. murder,scumbag,canada Thu, 17 May 2012 19:02:11 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=0fc_1337295603 tymoss Toronto police officers face charges over G20 misconduct Allison Cross May 17, 2012 - 4:56 PM ET Last Updated: May 17, 2012 6:03 PM ETCP files Some Toronto police commanders may be charged for misconduct in regards to how they lead officers during the G20 summit in Toronto two years ago, the CBC is reporting. Comments Email Twitter inShare4 A group of frontline Toronto police officers have been charged with G20 summit related offences, the head of the police union confirmed Thursday. Toronto Police Association president Mike McCormack told the National Post some officers have been charged over the past few months in an ongoing process. The revelation comes one day after the head of Ontario's police watchdog released a report slamming the actions of officers during the G20 in June 2010. According to the CBC, 28 officers have been charged and will appear at internal disciplinary hearings for alleged offences like unlawful arrest and use of excessive force. "That number's fairly accurate," Mr. McCormack said, adding he didn't know the exact number of frontline officers charged off the top of his head. CBC is also reporting that Toronto police commanders may be charged for misconduct in regards to how they led officers during the G20 summit in Toronto two years ago. Mr. McCormack said he couldn't comment on any charges against the police commanders, as they are not members of his association. Toronto Police Service has so far not confirmed any impending charges. http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/05/17/toronto-police-officers-face-charges-over-g20-misconduct/ http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=0fc_1337295603 tymoss Heyyyy in Canada were almost making police answer for fucking with our rights... Catch up America g20, police, brutality, human rights Fri, 23 Mar 2012 00:06:26 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=30d_1332475409 tymoss Picked up a hitchhiker on the road and said wed take her to the hi-way, she said she wanted to go for a beer... We said sure we've got beers at our place... After she slammed 3 brews and started rolling around on the deck asking for cash and coke we said it was time to go back to the hi-way... drove her back and she wouldn't get out of the jeep. This vid takes place after i gave her 5$ to go away and we pleaded nicely for about 7 minutes and started to lose patience. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=30d_1332475409 tymoss Hooker wont leave drunk, hooker, annoying, mexico Mon, 12 Mar 2012 20:05:56 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=607_1331596907 tymoss Near my house... Pretty sure its a reference to child molesting. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=607_1331596907 tymoss Funny church sign church,childmolesters Sun, 29 Jan 2012 22:21:29 -0500 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=c5a_1327880639 tymoss More lousville chugger http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=c5a_1327880639 tymoss More from an extremely intoxicated ball player drunk Sat, 28 Jan 2012 21:51:11 -0500 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=a50_1327804097 tymoss Now Ill be cool.... http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=a50_1327804097 tymoss Drunk asshole/best bro plays lousville chugger drunk,asshole Sun, 27 Nov 2011 16:09:00 -0500 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=439_1322427970 tymoss http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/nov/25/shocking-truth-about-crackdown-occupy US citizens of all political persuasions are still reeling from images of unparallelled police brutality in a coordinated crackdown against peaceful OWS protesters in cities across the nation this past week . An elderly woman was pepper-sprayed in the face; the scene of unresisting, supine students at UC Davis being pepper-sprayed by phalanxes of riot police went viral online; images proliferated of young women - targeted seemingly for their gender - screaming, dragged by the hair by police in riot gear; and the pictures of a young man, stunned and bleeding profusely from the head, emerged in the record of the middle-of-the-night clearing of Zuccotti Park. But just when Americans thought we had the picture - was this crazy police and mayoral overkill, on a municipal level, in many different cities? - the picture darkened. The National Union of Journalists and the Committee to Protect Journalists issued a Freedom of Information Act request to investigate possible federal involvement with law enforcement practices that appeared to target journalists. The New York Times reported that " New York cops have arrested, punched, whacked, shoved to the ground and tossed a barrier at reporters and photographers" covering protests. Reporters were asked by NYPD to raise their hands to prove they had credentials: when many dutifully did so, they were taken, upon threat of arrest, away from the story they were covering, and penned far from the site in which the news was unfolding . Other reporters wearing press passes were arrested and roughed up by cops, after being - falsely - informed by police that "It is illegal to take pictures on the sidewalk." In New York, a state supreme court justice and a New York City council member were beaten up ; in Berkeley, California, one of our greatest national poets, Robert Hass, was beaten with batons . The picture darkened still further when Wonkette and Washingtonsblog.com reported that the Mayor of Oakland acknowledged that the Department of Homeland Security had participated in an 18-city mayor conference call advising mayors on "how to suppress" Occupy protests . To Europeans, the enormity of this breach may not be obvious at first. Our system of government prohibits the creation of a federalised police force, and forbids federal or militarised involvement in municipal peacekeeping. I noticed that rightwing pundits and politicians on the TV shows on which I was appearing were all on-message against OWS. Journalist Chris Hayes reported on a leaked memo that revealed lobbyists vying for an $850,000 contract to smear Occupy. Message coordination of this kind is impossible without a full-court press at the top. This was clearly not simply a case of a freaked-out mayors', city-by-city municipal overreaction against mess in the parks and cranky campers. As the puzzle pieces fit together, they began to show coordination against OWS at the highest national levels. Why this massive mobilisation against these not-yet-fully-articulated, unarmed, inchoate people? After all, protesters against the war in Iraq, Tea Party rallies and others have all proceeded without this coordinated crackdown. Is it really the camping? As I write, two hundred young people, with sleeping bags, suitcases and even folding chairs, are still camping out all night and day outside of NBC on public sidewalks - under the benevolent eye of an NYPD cop - awaiting Saturday Night Live tickets, so surely the camping is not the issue. I was still deeply puzzled as to why OWS, this hapless, hopeful band, would call out a violent federal response. That is, until I found out what it was that OWS actually wanted. The mainstream media was declaring continually "OWS has no message". Frustrated, I simply asked them. I began soliciting online "What is it you want?" answers from Occupy. In the first 15 minutes, I received 100 answers. These were truly eye-opening. The No 1 agenda item: get the money out of politics. Most often cited was legislation to blunt the effect of the Citizens United ruling, which lets boundless sums enter the campaign process. No 2: reform the banking system to prevent fraud and manipulation, with the most frequent item being to restore the Glass-Steagall Act - the Depression-era law, done away with by President Clinton, that separates investment banks from commercial banks. This law would correct the conditions for the recent crisis, as investment banks could not take risks for profit that create kale derivatives out of thin air, and wipe out the commercial and savings banks. No 3 was the most clarifying: draft laws against the little-known loophole that currently allows members of Congress to pass legislation affecting Delaware-based corporations in which they themselves are investors. When I saw this list - and especially the last agenda item - the scales fell from my eyes. Of course, these unarmed people would be having the shit kicked out of them. For the terrible insight to take away from news that the Department of Homeland Security coordinated a violent crackdown is that the DHS does not freelance. The DHS cannot say, on its own initiative, "we are going after these scruffy hippies". Rather, DHS is answerable up a chain of command: first, to New York Representative Peter King, head of the House homeland security subcommittee, who naturally is influenced by his fellow congressmen and women's wishes and interests. And the DHS answers directly, above King, to the president (who was conveniently in Australia at the time). In other words, for the DHS to be on a call with mayors, the logic of its chain of command and accountability implies that congressional overseers, with the blessing of the White House, told the DHS to authorise mayors to order their police forces - pumped up with millions of dollars of hardware and training from the DHS - to make war on peaceful citizens. But wait: why on earth would Congress advise violent militarised reactions against its own peaceful constituents? The answer is straightforward: in recent years, members of Congress have started entering the system as members of the middle class (or upper middle class) - but they are leaving DC privy to vast personal wealth, as we see from the "scandal" of presidential contender Newt Gingrich's having been paid $1.8m for a few hours' "consulting" to special interests. The inflated fees to lawmakers who turn lobbyists are common knowledge, but the notion that congressmen and women are legislating their own companies' profitsis less widely known - and if the books were to be opened, they would surely reveal corruption on a Wall Street spectrum. Indeed, we do already know that congresspeople are massively profiting from trading on non-public information they have on companies about which they are legislating - a form of insider trading that sent Martha Stewart to jail. Since Occupy is heavily surveilled and infiltrated, it is likely that the DHS and police informers are aware, before Occupy itself is, what its emerging agenda is going to look like. If legislating away lobbyists' privileges to earn boundless fees once they are close to the legislative process, reforming the banks so they can't suck money out of fake derivatives products, and, most critically, opening the books on a system that allowed members of Congress to profit personally - and immensely - from their own legislation, are two beats away from the grasp of an electorally organised Occupy movement ... well, you will call out the troops on stopping that advance. So, when you connect the dots, properly understood, what happened this week is the first battle in a civil war; a civil war in which, for now, only one side is choosing violence. It is a battle in which members of Congress, with the collusion of the American president, sent violent, organised suppression against the people they are supposed to represent. Occupy has touched the third rail: personal congressional profits streams. Even though they are, as yet, unaware of what the implications of their movement are, those threatened by the stirrings of their dreams of reform are not. Sadly, Americans this week have come one step closer to being true brothers and sisters of the protesters in Tahrir Square. Like them, our own national leaders, who likely see their own personal wealth under threat from transparency and reform, are now making war upon us. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=439_1322427970 tymoss Flag wavers, you still got the wool over your eyes? OWS, america, greed, police violence Tue, 22 Feb 2011 00:49:56 -0500 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=b84_1298353711 tymoss Webster G. Tarpley, Ph.D. TARPLEY.net February 20, 2011 Washington DC, Feb. 20, 2011 - After four decades of disillusionment, and demoralization, disorientation and rout of the labor movement, the mass strike is once again abroad in the land. In dozens of state capitals, reactionary Republican governors and runaway legislatures, trading on the primitive slogans of the astroturf "Tea Party" movement, and controlled by sinister billionaires like the Koch brothers, are attempting to implement their lunatic agenda of tax cuts and deregulation for the super-rich, while attempting to shift the costs for Wall Street's world economic depression onto the backs of working people. The reactionary attack is now so ferocious that it is goading increasing numbers of American working people into actions of self-defense, leading US workers to put aside the apathy and passivity which have prevailed in the labor movement since the Nixon administration. In a move of unusual barbarism and savagery, Republican Governor Walker of Wisconsin is attempting to loot the wages and pensions of state workers, while at the same time stripping them of the right to collective bargaining which they have exercised for many decades. The workers, students, and citizens of Wisconsin and surrounding states have responded to Walker's challenge by occupying the state capital and maintaining a continuous presence in downtown Madison. The situation, bearing certain formal similarities to Tahrir Square in Cairo, is now a focus of national and international attention. De Facto General Strike of the Wisconsin Public Sector For the first time in a very long time, the American people are fighting back, waging class defense against the merciless class hatred and class warfare coming from the plutocratic 1% who own almost 40% of the total assets of this country, while the bottom 40% of Americans own less than 1%. The Wisconsin public unions are in a de facto general strike, shutting down schools and other offices, and enlisting other segments of the population in their support. The national media, engaged at the moment in a cheerleading campaign in favor of CIA destabilizations across the Middle East, are hesitating to condemn the strikers until they get a pretext. It is imperative that the Wisconsin public sector unions win their fight, and force Governor Walker to back down. But already, their union leaders and Democratic politicians have unilaterally given up on defending them against the wage and pension prongs of Walker's class war assault. This preventive surrender is very unwise, to say the least. Why not wait for concessions from Walker before giving up anything? If the labor movement refuses to try to defend even the existing reduced standard of living of US workers, then no success will ever be possible. The biggest problem for the Wisconsin public sector workers is that none of the leaders, so far as is known, has had the ability to propose a broader program than just the idea that state workers who have collective bargaining should be allowed to keep it. This is true and right, but it is also far too narrow, and will not be politically successful over time. Successful movements cannot simply advance the interests of their own limited group. They have to articulate a broader interest of the whole society, in which disparate strata of the population can see their own aspirations being expressed. The Wisconsin workers are doing this implicitly, but now they must do it explicitly, for all to see. Who Will Pay for the Depression - Wall Street or Working People? The big question right now is, "Who will pay for the depression?" Will it be the Wall Street parasites, who caused a crisis and who have insisted in an obscene display of $150 billion of bonuses in 2010, or will it be working people and the middle class? If Wisconsin public-sector workers don't want Governor Walker to flay them alive, they need to come up with some policy answers. If they don't want the state budget to be balanced at their expense, and they need to specify where indeed the money should come from. Is there no significant mass of wealth which is currently untaxed, where a modest levy might provide the revenue to get the state out of its budget difficulties? The Wall Street Sales Tax the Key to Labor Victory There is: it is the financial transactions of banks, hedge funds, and brokerages, in the form of derivatives, foreign exchange, stocks, bonds, and other financial instruments which are universally exempted in this country from the state sales taxes which everyone else pays when they purchase the necessities and amenities of daily life, from consumer electronics to a car or a pair of shoes. A 1% tax on all financial transactions, which is well within the power of the state of Wisconsin to impose, would provide hundreds of millions or billions of dollars of new revenue and remove any pretext for the current assault on state workers. Right now, we repeat, bankers and hedge fund operators pay absolutely no tax on their daily turnover of trading volume, which can easily reach into trillions of dollars, even in a state like Wisconsin. They need to start paying a Wall Street Sales Tax. Governor Walker says the state is broke and cannot afford to pay current wages and benefits. Since we are in a world economic depression, his argument is plausible. He also says that businesses and families cannot pay more in taxes. In many cases, although not all, this is also true. But the transactions of financial firms and banks represent a cash flow which is currently not taxed at all. Surely, if Governor Walker and so many commentator wants to talk about shared sacrifice, a 1% Wall Street sales tax on this turnover cannot be too much to ask. Simply put, if the Wisconsin cops, firemen, teachers and other state workers forcefully demand the Wall Street sales tax as an indispensable reform, they can win. Without the Wall Street sales tax, they are very likely to be defeated. If you tell a reactionary that state workers should not have their wages and benefits reduced, the reactionary is likely to ask where the money should come from. The Wall Street Sales Tax is the one answer which puts the reactionary on the defensive, and forces him to defend the most hated group in American society today - the Wall Street zombie bankers who have shown no gratitude for the bipartisan $4 TRILLION bailout they received from the US Treasury and the Federal Reserve. An Economic Program for Labor Victory The state workers should build a program of demands along the following lines: 1. Trade union rights for all. This means for everybody, not just for state workers. It implies a serious commitment by trade union bureaucrats to organize the 93% of the private sector who currently have no union representation. It also implies a commitment to organize the unemployed, including most emphatically undocumented workers or illegal aliens. If the labor movement has nothing to offer to immigrant workers, they are absolutely guaranteed to show up as strikebreakers in the pay of the reactionaries - so choose which you prefer. Trade union rights need to be anchored in federal legislation by returning to the Wagner Act of 1935, and by repealing the infamous Taft-Hartley Act, which condemns many states to low-wage backwardness in a race to the bottom under reactionary "right to work" laws. 2. No cutting, no gutting, no layoffs. Fiscal austerity and budget cuts represent national suicide, condemning the United States to permanent inferiority and immiseration as dynamic powers like China dominate the world stage. No more firing of state workers or private-sector workers, since unemployment is now about 25% in real terms, meaning a very serious depression. We must reject the recommendations of the various fiscal vampires and austerity ghouls of the Bowles-Simpson Commission. There must be no reductions in Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Head Start, WIC, Pell Grants, and the other remaining components of the social safety net. Unemployment benefits must be fully funded on an open-ended basis for the duration of the joblessness of any individual, with special provision for the 99ers whom Obama sold out in his deal with the GOP. 3. With unemployment now reaching 25% in real terms, American democracy is in grave danger. We need immediate measures in the spirit of the Franklin D. Roosevelt New Deal to create millions of productive jobs. We need a new addition of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and its related institutions, which were able to create 4.25 million jobs during a two-month period in the terrible winter of 1933-1934. We need a new federal agency operating on an emergency basis with the ability to cut through red tape and put people back to work rebuilding this country. We need to build tens of thousands of miles of ultra-modern fast rail. We need to build 1,000 state-of-the-art hospitals in rural America and the inner cities. We need to rebuild the entire Interstate Highway System, and roads and bridges across the country. We need modern energy production, including 100 nuclear reactors. We need to build canals and water systems. We need to fund scientific research for biomedical discoveries, high-energy physics, and a revived space program. A realistic goal would be 5 million new jobs to be created in the next three months, as a step towards the 30 million new productive jobs which would bring the country back to full employment for the first time since 1945. 4. Pay for these programs, especially public workers' salaries and benefits and the social safety net, with a Wall Street Sales Tax. As the economic recovery gathers steam, the Congress should force Bernanke and the Federal Reserve to stop giving trillions in 0% loans to banks and credit card companies, and instead make that same cheap federal credit available to producers - to the automobile industry, to Silicon Valley, to biotech, to heavy industry, to small business, to farmers, to states building infrastructure - to any business or agency that wants to produce tangible, physical wealth as distinct from derivatives and financial services - thus benefiting all the businesses that Wall Street has been starving of credit, down to local repair shops, dry cleaners, clothing stores, supermarkets, or restaurants. Expand the Strike Front or Face Certain Defeat This is a program for economic recovery, and it would allow Wisconsin state workers to build a real united front alliance with the main components of American society, while isolating the financial predators. This program speaks to the needs of public sector workers, private sector workers, union workers and unorganized workers, the unemployed, immigrant workers, students, farmers, small businessmen, executives of industrial corporations, retired people, the US military, and veterans - everybody but the top 1% of bankers. State workers and their supporters need to reach out to each and every one of these groups and organized them for a process of political strike support leading to a mass movement that can actually guarantee the survival and future prosperity of this country. The general rule for a mass strike process is that any struggle which is not rapidly expanding to include representatives of new additional groups is in immediate danger of stagnation and collapse. Narrow trade union methods will not succeed. Strike support does not mean delivering hot soup to a picket line, it means providing a program and a strategy for victory when before there were none. As reactionary politicians go, Governor Walker of Wisconsin is evidently an amateur and a bungler. By making such a direct frontal attack on collective bargaining by state workers in Wisconsin, he has stupidly created a broad-based backlash across his state and far beyond, producing a situation in which union leaders and some local officials of the Democratic Party have been forced to fight back. Just before his sneak attack on the public unions, Walker had presided over a $117 million tax cut for corporations. His argument is that any taxes on corporations and the rich threaten to interfere with the process of job creation - a process which is in any case largely nonexistent, as it has been since fall of 2008 at the latest. When the rich get money, they do not spend it on plant and equipment; they rather buy derivatives from Goldman Sachs, or use the cash to set up runaway shops in the low-wage countries of South Asia. But in order to avoid the hypothetical threat of preventing the rich from creating jobs, Walker is eager to destroy concrete, existing public sector jobs. It makes no sense, except to the logic of pure greed. The Hand of Koch over Wisconsin: The American Legislative Exchange The current crisis has Koch's fingerprints all over it. Walker is one of a whole stable of reactionary politicians, including Washington primitives like Senator DeMint, who are controlled by Koch. The assault on state workers nationwide is being coordinated by the American Legislative Exchange (ALEC), which aims at busting state unions. Walker's Tea Party supporters, such as they arte, were bussed in by Americans for Prosperity, another group controlled by Koch. Economics 101: Budget Cuts and Fiscal Austerity Lead to Bigger Deficits, Not Balanced Budgets Austerity must be rejected not only for the humanitarian reason that it kills people, but also because it fails in its own narrow terms of moving the budget towards balance In a depression like this one, the world banking panic caused by the collapse of the derivatives bubble in September 2008 has reduced both effective demand and the scale of overall economic activity, as banks and corporations hoard cash, and consumers attempt to pay off debt. Because of the insane derivatives bubble stoked by Wall Street zombie bankers and hedge fund hyenas using their derivatives, the private sector has atrophied and degraded. This means that a very large part of the surviving economic activity is represented by the public sector, in other words government at all levels. Under these circumstances, cuts in government spending radically reduce the remaining economic activity, so that production falls, unemployment rises, and the government must step in to provide unemployment benefits. Government workers paying taxes and consuming goods are transformed into jobless. The result of all this is that government deficits rise, rather than being reduced. That's right: under the depression conditions, budget cuts in public worker layoffs lead to bigger and bigger deficits, not progress towards balanced budgets. Budget Cuts and Austerity Do Not Work in a Depression - From Herbert Hoover the Arnold Schwarzenegger Ask the infamous Herbert Hoover, since this is exactly what he tried to do - balance the budget in a depression using cuts. Or ask the widely hated Arnold Schwarzenegger, who mercilessly cut the California budget during the last several years of his administration, only to find that the more he cut, the bigger the deficit grew in the following year. Or, take the case of Germany 1930-33, just before Hitler's seizure of power. Chancellor Bruening cut some 20% out of the German national budget, but tax revenues kept falling, unemployment kept growing, production kept falling, and the depression kept getting deeper. Bruening never did get out of the Depression, but he succeeded in destroying the German political system and opening the door to a Nazi mass movement and all the horrors of Hitler. These are examples of where austerity policies like those advocated by Governor Walker have led historically. What need is there to repeat this exercise in cruelty and futility? Stop calling them "conservatives" - they are reactionaries and proto-fascists News commentators persist in applying the misnomer of "conservative" to the strikebreaking forces now mobilizing in Wisconsin and many other states. This is scientifically inaccurate, and also a huge public relations gift to the union busters. In Wisconsin in particular, public-sector unions have had the right of collective bargaining for more than half a century. The forces controlled by Koch and his ilk would now like to turn the clock all the way back to the early 19th century, when trade unions were banned as a conspiracy in restraint of free trade. The union busters have no respect for tradition, no regard for the status quo, no interest in organic growth, and no patience with notions of gradual reform in any direction. They are right wing radicals, militant reactionaries, or right wing extremists, destined as such to gravitate into proto-fascist directions as the world economic depression deepens and the special privileges of the legions of greed are threatened. Whatever the "Tea Party" might have been when it got started in early 2009, it has by now being totally absorbed into the Koch machine, meaning the militant extremist and reactionary wing of finance capital. This is an extremely ominous development. Back in the 1930s, fascist millionaires like Pew of Sun Oil, Pitcairn of Pittsburgh Plate Glass, and DuPont financed strikebreaking organizations like the Silver Shirts, the Sentinels of the Republic, the Crusaders, and the Southern Committee for the Constitution. This is where the Tea Party is headed. When you get right wing goon squads who are paid and deployed against worker demonstrations and strikes by super-rich moneybags, then you are on the road to Italy in 1922 and Germany in 1933, when fascist movements took power. Obama: Strikebreaker in Chief President Obama and the Democratic Party can be relied upon to betray the movement of working people as soon as they get the chance. Obama has been waging his own campaign against teachers' unions from the first day he entered office, although with methods which are slower and more indirect than those used by the unfortunate Governor Walker. Obama calls his union-busting program against the teachers' unions the Race to The Top, which he is implementing with Secretary of Education Arnie Duncan and such figures as the foundation operative Michelle Rhee. All working people need to understand that none of the principal factions of the Democratic Party are on their side, if only because they are all tied to Obama, whose loyalties are with Wall Street. Cuomo in New York and Jerry Brown in California are pushing the same slow death for the state unions, but they are more deceptive than Walker. The retreat of American labor began with the General Electric strike of 1969, followed by the Nixon policies of Phase 1 (wage controls), Phase 2, and Phase 3, which started unions on the path to defeat. Jimmy Carter regarded unions as just another special interest with no claim on the loyalty of the Democratic Party, and Obama represents the same approach. The retreat became a rout when Reagan busted the air traffic controllers' union PATCO in 1981, and since then unions have been continuously on the ropes. Under Bush, millions of productive jobs were destroyed. Obama promised the unions card check to facilitate organizing, but has delivered absolutely nothing. The rebirth of labor ferment is therefore one of the most hopeful signs we have seen in many decades. But right now the reviving labor movement lacks the two main ingredients necessary for victory - an economic program and an organizing strategy capable of mobilizing the entire US population, way beyond the narrow confines of today's shriveled unions ranks. These are the two urgent tasks which must be addressed. General Strike Against Anti-Worker Policies, Austerity Psychosis The US may soon be ripe for a nationwide general strike against austerity, layoffs, unemployment, and budget cuts. Obama and Boehner went to carve the federal budget, reducing vital services and attacking the entitlements which are the economic rights of Americans. Walker in Wisconsin, Kasich in Ohio, Scott in Florida, Christie in New Jersey, Perry in Texas, Brewer in Arizona, McDonnell in Virginia and many more are leading a drive to reduce the United States to a low-wage nation of super-exploited coolies and serfs. A general strike could convince their backers that their methods are too dangerous, and generate a real backlash. Rich Trumka, are you listening over there at the AFL-CIO? Where is your call for a general strike against austerity, Rich? Put it out soon, Rich, or the movement might just sweep you aside. Turn Any GOP Government Shutdown or Default into a General Strike If DeMint, Ryan, and the rest of the Koch brigade in Congress insist on shutting down the US government or driving it into bankruptcy default in March, they will be showing that their rhetoric about maintaining government services in Wisconsin or anywhere else is a pack of lies. At that point, the response of the American people should be to turn the GOP's government shutdown into an open-ended nationwide general strike of the public and private sectors around the demands listed above. Maybe that will give Wall Street something to think about. For the first time in many decades, class conflict in the United States shows signs of becoming a two-way street. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=b84_1298353711 tymoss Wisconsin GOP Governor in Neofascist Union-Busting Drive; Mass Strike Dynamic Returns to US After Four Decades of Labor Rout; Koch Strikebreakers of strikes, union, civil, unrest Thu, 27 Jan 2011 14:55:17 -0500 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=6a2_1296158057 tymoss Postmedia News January 27, 2011 - 7:40 am By Melissa Martin WINNIPEG - A Winnipeg waitress will file a complaint with the Manitoba Human Rights Commission after she lost her job for shaving her head on New Year's Eve as a show of support for her uncle who was dying of cancer. "Having a physical symbol that I'm there for (him) is important," says Stephanie Lozinski, a full-time student at the University of Winnipeg. "Looking pretty means nothing (compared to cancer)." But on Jan. 16, after she finished a shift at Winnipeg's Sawatdee Thai's restaurant, she was told her hairless head was not in keeping with the restaurant's dress code and dismissed. Ms. Lozinski, who had covered her head with a long auburn wig or an embroidered scarf, was stunned, especially since she said she told her bosses about her plan beforehand. Manager Linh Bo said the step was justified. "If you go to fine dining, what do you expect from a server? Seriously," said Mr. Bo. "You walk into fine dining and you have fine dining." Bo said managers at the restaurant's two locations are clear with staff that they can't have visible tattoos and must wear their hair appropriately, besides dressing in a Thai skirt. But Ms. Lozinski, who said she was never informed of a dress code, doesn't believe the firing was fair. Had she been male, she doubts she would have been lost her job for shaving her head. Ms. Lozinski left messages with the Manitoba's Human Rights Commission this week and plans to file a complaint soon. This isn't the first time a shaved head for cancer has sparked an employment tussle. In 2008, an Owen Sound, Ont. waitress, Stacey Fearnall, was fired after she shaved her head to raise $2,700 for cancer charities. After a storm of media attention, the restaurant's owner apologized to Fearnall and cancer groups. Ms. Fearnall found work elsewhere. Postmedia News Read more: http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/01/27/fired-bald-waitress-to-file-complaint/#ixzz1CGcotkg3 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=6a2_1296158057 tymoss Waitress fired after shaving head for cancer injustice