Not being covered in the corporate media: Tomorrow May 1, West Coast Ports to be shut down to protest war!
● For Workers Strikes Against the War! ILWU to Shut Down West Coast Ports May 1 Demanding End to War in Iraq, Afghanistan. In a major step for the U.S. labor movement, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) has announced that it will shut down West Coast ports on May 1, to demand an immediate end to the war and occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan and the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the Middle East.
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Remember the "voting" in Iraq? When we brought them "democracy"? We're spending more than $2 billion a week there!
● U.S. Role Deepens in Sadr City. Fierce Battle Against Shiite Militiamen Echoes First Years of War. BAGHDAD, April 29 -- A four-hour battle Tuesday between U.S. soldiers and Shiite militiamen left at least 28 Iraqis dead in the capital's Sadr City neighborhood, making it one of the bloodiest days in a month of sustained street fighting. 6 GI's hurt.
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Elizabeth Edwards on John McCain's proposed health care plan:
For those of you always saying that Obama is always saying "hope" and has no specifics, here's McCain's "specifics" when McCain's advisor Holtz-Eakin is questioned about McCain's "specifics":
McCain's advisor: "Ummmmmmmmmmm........."
ON SPENDING CUTS
– “Mr. Holtz-Eakin says the mistake that people are making is treating the McCain platform as if it were a finished piece of work. ‘It’s April,’ he said. ‘We have until November.’ The campaign will later unveil ‘base broadeners’ in the corporate tax code — that is, loopholes it will eliminate — that will pay for the faster investment write-offs, for example.” [NYT, 4/23/08]
ON CLIMATE POLICY
– “He [McCain] certainly would revise the bill [Lieberman-Warner] in light of what’s transpired, and I expect he’ll put out, during the course of the campaign, something like an updated version of his view of how it should go.” [Holtz-Eakin interview with Grist, 4/21/08]
– “I’m just going to defer until he [McCain] puts out the climate policy.” [Holtz-Eakin interview with Grist, 4/21/08]
ON HEALTH CARE
– “‘We are working on it,’ said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, McCain’s top policy adviser. ‘We’ll put out more details. As we do, it will be clearer to people.’” [Boston Globe, 4/3/08]
ON McCAIN’S TAX PLAN
– “Having secured the Republican nomination, McCain now also seems uncomfortable with the huge tax cuts he proposed months ago, and the campaign seems to be searching for a course correction. Holtz-Eakin has said that McCain ‘is by no means done making tax proposals.‘” [CBS News, 4/20/08]
● McCain strongly rejected long term Iraq presence in 2005
● Spurned By Negative Media Attention, Ashcroft Now Keeping His Mouth Shut On Waterboarding
● Wolfowitz Concedes He Was ‘Clueless,’ But Still Contends Shinseki Was Wrong On Postwar Troop Levels
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● The New Daily NEPA/AAA DAILY GAS RECORD:
Scranton--Wilkes-Barre--Hazleton Regular Mid Premium Diesel
Current $3.619 $3.816 $3.984 $4.425
Yesterday $3.615 $3.811 $3.979 $4.435
Month Ago $3.275 $3.452 $3.605 $4.244
Year Ago $2.855 $3.010 $3.142 $2.931
Highest Recorded Price:
Regular Unl. $3.619 4/30/2008
Dsl. $4.444 4/28/2008
● Pump prices lift Shell and BP to record £7.2bnDavid Robertson. BP and Royal Dutch Shell have reported massive increases in profits for the first three months of this year on the back of rocketing petrol prices, which are expected to hit £5 a gallon today. BP's pre-tax profits rose 48 per cent in the first quarter to $6.6 billion (£3.3 billion) while Shell increased its profits 12 per cent to a record $7.8 billion (£3.9 billion). The increase has been driven by the rising oil prices, which the companies have passed on to consumers in the form of higher petrol and diesel costs. The price of oil came close to $120 yesterday but was trading slightly lower at $118 in early trading today. Meanwhile, the price of petrol continues to rise because of supply concerns in Scotland - where the Grangemouth refinery was shut down for two days because of industrial action.
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NEPA:
● Judge’s brother-in-law paid $877K. Psych services to court not bid out
Other news they're not telling you:
● WASHINGTON — Millions of dollars of lucrative Iraq reconstruction contracts were never finished because of excessive delays, poor performance or other factors, including failed projects that are being falsely described by the U.S. government as complete, federal investigators say.
● Canada's C-51 Law May Outlaw 60% of Natural Health Products; Big Pharma Pushing to Criminalize Supplements
● House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers has threatened to subpoena several former officials in the Bush administration if they do not agree to testify about their roles in the preparation of the so-called "torture memos" that authorized severe interrogation tactics in the war on terror. Conyers (D-MI) sent letters to former Deputy Assistant Attorney General John C. Yoo, Chief of Staff to the Vice President David Addington, and former Attorney General John Ashcroft. In each of the letters, Conyers provides a May 2 deadline for response or, he says, "I will have no choice but to consider the use of compulsory process."
● Michigan to vote on legalizing marijuana for medical use (yeah, but on e-vote machines???)
● CHICAGO -- A government witness testified Monday that political fundraiser Antoin "Tony" Rezko told him three years ago that Chicago's chief federal prosecutor was to be fired and replaced by someone chosen by then-U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert. Restaurant owner Elie Maloof quoted Rezko as saying the new U.S. attorney in Chicago, whom Rezko said would be chosen by Hastert, would then kill a federal investigation into corruption under Gov. Rod Blagojevich. "The federal prosecutor would no longer be the federal prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald would be eliminated," Maloof told Rezko's fraud trial.
