Bob Morris @ Apr 29th 2006 07:05 - Category: Unfiled ;
US charges ex-Abu Ghraib officer
The US military has charged the former head of the interrogation centre at Baghdad’s Abu Ghraib prison over the abuse of Iraqi detainees.
Lt-Col Steven Jordan has been charged with seven offences including maltreatment of prisoners.
He is the first officer charged with criminal offenses for the atrocities of Abu Ghraib.
Bob Morris @ Apr 29th 2006 00:08 - Category: Immigrant rights ;
Two immigrant rights demonstrations Monday in Los Angeles could each draw a half-million marchers or more, police said Thursday, as officials expressed concern about a major disruption of traffic, commerce and school.
This is this first time to my knowledge that LAPD has made crowd predictions in advance of the event. Odd. (Update: Police now say the total might be 500,000, which seems more realistic.)
Demonstrations are planned for downtown at noon and Mid-Wilshire at 4 p.m. Gascon said the LAPD is gearing up to deal with hundreds of thousands of demonstrators at each.
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Cardinal Roger Mahony and others have encouraged protesters to attend the late-afternoon march from MacArthur Park down Wilshire Boulevard to La Brea Avenue, prompting authorities to say that crowd might be the larger of the two.
The MacArthur Park march (4 pm, MacArthur Park) does not endorse the boycott. Call it Protest-Lite. Also, the logistics are terrible. But, hey, if you want to march 4.1 miles in a straight line to a tar pit with no obvious way to get back, on a day when traffic will be gridlocked, then have at it.
The March 25 Coalition emphatically does endorse the boycott. They called the downtown march (Noon, Olympic & Broadway.) This march is 1.1 miles, and begins and ends near subway stops. Politically and logistically, this is the one to be at.
Major walkouts from schools are expected whether the mayor approves or not. It was apparently fine for him to lead student boycotts as a youth, but it’s not ok for anyone else to do the same now - according to him, that is. I’m guessing students will disagree.
Also, L.A. ports braced for May 1 truck driver boycott
Visits to Polizeros are 50% above normal. We’ve been averaging 3000 visits a day, Thursday was 4500. (I won’t have Friday’s numbers until the middle of Saturday.) Commenting here is way up too, and is almost entirely in posts about May 1.
Bob Morris @ Apr 29th 2006 00:07 - Category: Immigrant rights ;
Excerpts from comments to posts here about May 1. (you never saw these comments because I deleted them.)
You are all ignorant puppets. — Nacho Sanchez
Nacho goes on to explains it’s all because of those commies at ANSWER. Ah, no. As most of you know, I’m in ANSWER, and while even those who loathe us will admit we are skilled organizers, nope, ain’t no way we could have mobilized the several million who have marched these past few weeks. What happened was a genuine grassroots upsurge. Deal with it, Nacho, and here’s a clue, lots of people in ANSWER are Latino and/or immigrants too. ANSWER is but one of dozens of groups and coalitions nationwide helping to build for May 1.
You Mexicans sure have big egos. — Proud 2b American
Asking to be treated as human beings, why that’s just darned uppity of them, isn’t it?
There is no way that a bunch of uneducated and illiterate peasants from rural Mexico could possibly organize this coordinated protest. — Sad American
Some undocumented workers might well speak three languages (their indigeneous language, Spanish, and English.) How many do you speak, Mr. Sad? P.S. Your rampant racism is showing. You should try harder next time to pretend you aren’t a bigot.
Note to bozos: If I delete your right-wing comment, sending it again multiple times, complete with insults, will not cause me to relent. Also, there are multiple ways to configure things so your comments are deleted before the moderation process, causing your deathless prose to go screaming into the void, unread by anyone.
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