TNHP March 15 2013
New Pope Francis was an accessory to murder and false
imprisonment by the US-backed Argentine dictatorship
13 March 2013 — Benedict XVI gave us words of great comfort and encouragement in the message he delivered on Christmas Eve.
If these words comforted and encouraged me they will surely have done the same for leaders of the church in Argentina, among many others. To the judicious and fair-minded outsider it has been clear for years that the upper reaches of the Argentine church contained many "lost sheep in the wilderness", men who had communed and supported the unspeakably brutal Western-supported military dictatorship that seized power in that country in 1976 and battened on it for years.
The “disappeared” included women who were pregnant at the time of their arrest. In some bizarre nod to Catholic theology, they were kept alive only long enough to give birth before they were murdered and their babies were farmed out to military families, including to people directly involved in the murder of the babies’ mothers.
Pope Francis: Simple image, but shadowy past
Only 10% of Argentine catholics attend church
13 March 2013 — Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio (now Pope Francis 1) almost never granted media interviews, limiting himself to speeches from the pulpit, and was reluctant to contradict his critics, even when he knew their allegations against him were false, said Bergoglio's authorized biographer, Sergio Rubin.
Bergoglio's legacy as cardinal includes his efforts to repair the reputation of a church that lost many followers by failing to openly challenge Argentina's dictatorship. He also worked to recover the church's traditional political influence in society, but his outspoken criticism of President Cristina Fernandez couldn't stop her from imposing socially liberal measures that are anathema to the church, from gay marriage and adoption to free contraceptives for all.
Obama slip-slides America away from the principles of its founding fathers
'That these questions even need to be asked underscores how urgently needed (Rand) Paul's filibuster was, and how much more serious pushback is still merited. But the primary obstacle to this effort has been, and remains, that the Democrats who spent all that time parading around as champions of these political values are now at the head of the line leading the war against them.'
Three Democratic myths used to demean the Paul filibuster
Adults can usually withstand the pressure. But imagine fighting a pitched church-state battle when you’re a teenager in high school.
The high school years are a period when many young people just want to fit in with peers or keep a low profile. When separation of church and state is violated in a public school, students are the ones most affected. They’re the ones who have to stand up and make it right. It’s not always easy.
Here are five young people who made a difference.
(More)System hidden in plain sight, many had to be aware of it
04 March 2013 — In the Polish countryside, and in the centre of Paris. Hidden from view, and in plain sight. Hundreds of thousands of prisoners, or just a few dozen. All different, and deadly, and scattered across wartime Europe.
Hanoi changes rules to satisfy needs of unmarried women
New York Times
More than one-third of all girls are married in 42 countries, according to the U.N. Population Fund, referring to females under the age of 18. The highest number of cases occurs in some of the poorest countries, the agency figures show, with the West African nation of Niger at the bottom of the list with 75 percent of girls married before they turn 18. In Bangladesh the figure is 66 percent and in Central African Republic and Chad it is 68 percent.
Most child marriages take place in South Asia and rural sub-Saharan Africa, according to the population fund. In terms of absolute numbers, India, because of its large population, has the most child marriages with child brides in 47 percent of all marriages. (More)
Almost all the commentary about this flap fits neatly under the heading, "What the Hell Happened to Bob Woodward?" But posing that question, as New York magazine did last week, implies a transformation that never occurred. Woodward is the same now as he ever was. His misrepresentation of his interaction with Sperling is only the latest in a long string of questionable journalistic episodes. (More)
Boy stops murder plot with hand gun
but national news media ignores story
Mexico has strict gun laws but it's world's murder central
while US gun deaths drop by half during the past 20 years
Infowars.com
United States of America
08 March 2013 — Here’s another US pro-second amendment story that you will never see on the major news networks – a Texas boy who watched his sister and mother being raped during a home invasion by two men, who later abandoned a plan to murder the three victims, was able to grab a handgun and send the two individuals fleeing.
The suspects, subsequently named as 33-year-old Charles Allen Jacobson III and 56-year-old James Ellis Barnett, then bound the three victims and drove them to a nearby field. According to police, Jacobson gave Barnett a handgun and told him to kill the three hostages but Barnett refused.
The two suspects then drove the family back to their home on Anne Drive, Webster, in order to dispose of evidence. It was at this point that “the male juvenile victim was able to get free and arm himself with a handgun which the family had,” said Chief Ray Smiley.
“He then confronted the suspects, who fled the scene”. (More)
“We are afraid,” striker Jorge Victor Rios told The Nation prior to the work stoppage. “But we are trying to overcome our fear.”
The McDonald’s corporation did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The J-1 visa program is officially intended to promote educational and cultural exchange. But advocates allege that J-1, like the other guest worker programs that collectively bring hundreds of thousands of workers in and out of the United States each year, is rife with abuse. The National Guestworker Alliance (NGA), the organization spearheading today’s strike, charges that such programs—whose future is intimately tied up with the fate of comprehensive immigration reform—offer ample opportunities for employers to intimidate workers, suppress organizing and drive down labor standards. (More)
From the Desk of Donald Swartz
Scabs fill your jets at Porter Airlines as 'fuelers' strike over $12 pay
Toronto Island Porter employees paid $1.75 over minimum wage
Sean Smith is a community based organizer and a member of the Greater Toronto Workers' Assembly.
15 March 2013 — On 17 January 2013, 22 ‘fuelers’ at Porter Airlines went on strike for a first Collective Agreement. In an airline industry infamous for implementing a race to the bottom, these are the lowest paid. No one could accept Porter's offer of 25 cents for those making $12 an hour and no raise for those making $14. Another key demand is for management to address their serious Health and Safety concerns.
These Health and Safety problems have only intensified since Porter replaced the striking workers with scabs, many of whom have no previous experience or qualifications, in the crucial job of fueling all aircraft at Toronto Island Airport. Unlike at Air Canada where Canada's Minister of Labour, Lisa Raitt, imposed four different laws to suppress workers' bargaining rights there has been complete indifference from Ottawa when the workers' union, COPE Local 343, contacted her office to explain the serious safety concerns at Porter. (More)
Whoever made this recording, and I don't know who the person is, has done the American public a great service. This marks the first time the American public can hear Bradley Manning, in his own voice explain what he did and how he did it.
After listening to this recording and reading his testimony, I believe Bradley Manning is the personification of the word whistleblower.
Secrecy Surrounding Trial
Manning faces some of exact same charges I faced forty two years ago when I leaked the Pentagon Papers to the New York Times and eighteen other papers. The only difference is I was a civilian, so I could stay out of jail on bond while the trial was going on, and was able to talk to the media throughout. I took responsibility for what I had done on the day of my arrest, and I was able to explain why I did it.
But thanks to the judge's rulings in Manning's case, the public has barely heard anything from Manning at all. No official transcripts of the proceeding are released to the public, and when documents like the judge's court orders are released, it is weeks after the fact - and only in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.
Now I hope the American people can see Manning in a different light. In 1971, I was able to give the media my side of the story, and it is long overdue Manning is able to do the same. As Manning has now done, I stipulated as to all the facts for which I was accused. And I did that for several reasons, and I suspect that Manning had the same motives.
