Sept. 30, 2006

George Bush is getting set for another attempt to raid Social Security by deliberately and falsely connecting the retirement program with the crisis facing health care in the U.S

NLRB decision looms; ‘Ring my bell’; CBTU calls for Zimbabwe solidarity; Union pie; Two workers die, manager sentenced to teach safety class; More workers in debt; Now in aisle 6 — Wal-Mart voter guides; World Bank’s dirty business; Whistle blowers silenced; This week’s tally for health care; Workers’ comp for 9/11 workers; Laborers get to work

Claims about a secret nuclear weapons program. A campaign to involve the UN. Rejecting negotiations. Spreading false “information.” Sound like the months before the Iraq war? For Iraq, read Iran

World leaders and diplomats departed New York following the 61st UN General Assembly without incident, except for one. Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolás Maduro was detained at JFK Airport for 90 minutes by U.S. officials who seized his travel documents.

Way too much is being made of Hugo Chávez calling Bush the “devil” in his recent United Nations speech. Unfortunately, it’s being used to divert attention from the very substantive and profoundly courageous things that the president of Venezuela said during his trip to New York.

As the Bush administration and the extreme right continue to dismantle everything that our parents and grandparents fought for and won; as they offer up our generation to die in an unjust war; as they turn a blind eye to hurricane-ravaged communities that have already been torn apart by racism, poverty, police brutality and unemployment — we have a choice to make.

In the ongoing battle over immigration, conservative rhetoric continues to escalate. It’s racist, and it gets results. Here, then, are the six racist myths driving the immigration debate dispelled.

On Sept. 14 the U.S. House of Representatives, in the spirit of election-year politics, passed HR 6061, the “Secure Fence Act,” which calls for construction of 700 miles of fencing along the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border.