New York Harlem Mass Strike in Action

NEW YORK: More than 20,000 protesters--teachers, social


workers, union members and others--marched on Wall Street

Thursday against Mayor Bloomberg's draconian education cuts, and

against the Wall Street bankers they blame for the city's budget

crisis. Rev. Al Sharpton, UFT President Michael Mulgrew and an

array of city council members and state elected officials laid

the blame for the budget cuts squarely at Bloomberg and Wall

Street's feet. "Wall Street recovered, hedge funds got

stimulated, and now they want to lay off teachers and close day

care centers," Sharpton said. "We're going where they sent the

money." Randi Weingarten, president of the UFT's parent

organization, the American Federation of Teachers, noted she has

traveled the country in the past few months fighting against

teacher cuts in states across the nation. "I never expected to

come home to see New York act like Wisconsin," she told the

crowd. ({The Nation}, {Huffington Post})

CALIFORNIA: 26 members of the California Teachers

Association, including the union's president, were arrested in

the state Capitol in Sacramento on Thursday evening as part of

their week-long protest against Gov. Jerry Brown's proposed

budget to be released Monday. The arrests mark the second time

this week that law enforcement was ordered to break up the

union's events. In high schools throughout the state and in the

Bay Area, students and teachers rallied and protested this past

week, including student walk-outs. On Friday, thousands were

expected to gather in Pershing Square in downtown Los Angeles to

protest the cuts, Similar protests were held in San Diego, San

Francisco, Oakland and Sacramento.

In addition, Sacramento residents packed into a City Hall

meeting room Thursday night to protest proposed budget cuts to

community centers and other local parks programs. About 45

citizens addressed the City Council. The proposed budget cuts

would slash hours at the Hart Senior Center in Midtown by half.

Some of the speakers contrasted the proposed community center

cuts with city leaders efforts to bring a new sports arena to the

area. "You just knocked out all the senior people, so you better

get us some seats up at your new arena," Helen Blatta, a

supporter of the Hart Senior Center, warned. ({Los Angeles

Times}, {Sacramento Press}, {Pasadena Weekly})

WISCONSIN: Thousands of protesters are scheduled to come to

Madison for a Saturday rally. Buses are coming from all corners

of Wisconsin, including Eau Claire, Wausau, Racine, Manitowoc and

Milwaukee, according to the AFL-CIO. An email advisory said the

rally will show that the people want to deliver "a resounding

message to stop the attacks on the middle class." "Working

families have joined together for three months and prevented

Scott Walker's radical plan to take away workers' rights for

three months," the advisory said. "On Saturday, working families

will join together to protest Walker's extreme agenda and budget

proposals. The people of Wisconsin are as united and determined

as ever. Their voices will not be silenced." (Reuters)

MINNESOTA: About a dozen college students this afternoon

ended a 96-mile, 60-hour journey, having walked from Mankato to

St. Paul (for the second time) to protest cuts in state aid to

higher education. (MinnPost.com)

MICHIGAN: A Muskegon County school district's budget cutting

proposal is sparking protests; Wednesday night dozens of people

rallied to protest privatizing school services. The district is

considering outsourcing bus drivers, cafeteria workers and

custodians to help ease a nearly $2-million budget deficit.

(WZZM)

MARYLAND: Teachers and students of the Baltimore School for

the Arts have been protesting for the past couple of weeks about

the budget cuts the school is facing, which will lead to three

teachers losing their jobs next year. Teachers were seen marching

down to City Hall Friday morning to demand "fair treatment of

teachers," and students organized a protest last week.

({Baltimore Sun})

ALABAMA: Scores of drivers honked their car horns as they

passed by the Tuscaloosa County School System's central office

Thursday evening, while the Board of Education was meeting to

decide whether to cut school nursing positions. At the meeting,

Tuscaloosa County Schools Superintendent Frank Costanzo told a

group of school nurses that he had not yet made a decision to

eliminate licensed practical nurses at schools. ({Tuscaloosa

News}) [ews]



Obama "Mans Up" to a Meeting with the Black Caucus on (No) Jobs



May 13 (LPAC)--Yesterday Nerobama held his first meeting with the

full Black Caucus since he has been President, to listen to an

earful about the astronomically high unemployment rates for

blacks and black teenagers in urban centers in particular.

Reliable sources in Washington report that relations between

Obama and Black elected officials have gotten increasingly tense

recently, as the legislators are waking up to the fact that

Obama's policies are destroying their constituency--along with

the rest of the population.

The meeting was the first time the full Black Caucus had met

with Obama since he became President. It follows a meeting the

Black Caucus had with White House Chief of Staff William Daley

last week, www.kansascity.com reports.

At the White House press briefing yesterday, a reporter

asked, "This Administration is tallying 14 consecutive months of

job growth in the private sector. And you have African-American

leaders, to include [sic] Mary Frances Berry and Al Sharpton, who

are saying, 'Who's getting those jobs?' Because the data shows

African Americans are not getting those jobs, when the African

American unemployment rate is right now 16.1%, and the black teen

unemployment rate is 44%. So who's getting those jobs?'"

Dr. Boyce Watkins, of YourBlack World.com, reports that he

and Dr. Wilmer Leon had reported early this week that "the Obama

Administration's gatekeepers have inexplicably canceled several

meetings with the Congressional Black Caucus over the past two

years. Dr. Leon and I speculate the meeting cancellations were

due to members of the administration, most notably, Senior

Advisor Valerie Jarrett, not having an interest in putting the

president face-to-face with African American political leaders."

During yesterday's meeting, Watkins reports, Obama

acknowledged that the black unemployment rate remains "far too

high."

Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) told the press that the CBC had

used its Facebook page to ask its constituency what it should

discuss with Obama. 97% said "Jobs," Cleaver reported. When Obama

was pressed to do more for the African-American population

hardest-hit by unemployment, he was "reluctant," the Huffington

Post reported. Asked why Obama was reluctant, Cleaver

"stammered," and suggested that some of the other CBC members

might be more "forthcoming. I mean, I'm the chair." (He was

acting more like the part of the human anatomy that is in regular

contact with a chair.)

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Tex.) also pressed Obama at the

meeting to give jobs to minority youth to clean up some of the

nation's disasters in the tornado belt, and the Mississippi flood

areas, and urged Obama take another look at supporting the

request of Texas Governor Rick Perry (R) for disaster aid for

areas hit by Texas wildfires, which Obama refused.

But none of the CBC members are known to have told Obama to

do the one thing that could have actually addressed these

problems: reinstitute Glass-Steagall. [agg]



Obama White House's Loose Chatter on Bin Laden Raid Damages

National Security



May 13 (LPAC)--In an unusual statement that is being widely

interpreted as a slap at Obama and his top aides, Defense

Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday that "operational details"

on the Osama bin Laden raid were disclosed in violation of an

agreement among top U.S. officials, harming the military's

ability to conduct such operations in the future. The London

{Daily} Telegraph, for example, called Gates' remarks "a thinly

veiled attack on White House officials."

Speaking to Marines at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, Gates

disclosed that "a week ago Sunday, in the Situation Room, we all

agreed that we would not release any operational details from the

effort to take out bin Laden," and then he pointedly stated,

"That all fell apart on Monday--the next day."

Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell told ABC News that

"all of a sudden airwaves and newspapers were filled with details

about a covert military and intelligence operation and that's

concerning, because one of the reasons that these operations--and

this operation in particular--are effective is because how they

do their work, how they're equipped, how they're trained, their

tactics and procedures are all secret ... The more that's in the

public domain the less likely we'll be able to pull these

operations off in the future."

The {National Journal} reported today that the Joint Special

Operations Command (JSOC), which ran the operation, has opened an

operational security review to determine how damaging the public

disclosures might be for future operations. JSOC will almost

certainly be forced to adopt new methods, which poses an acute

problem because the intelligence that's being analyzed may

require JSOC to conduct similar raids in short order, the

National Journal said.

Others have pointed out that the torrent of detailed

information, much emanating from the White House, endangers the

military and intelligence operatives involved, as well as their

families.

Rob Curtis, who writes the Gear Scout blog for Military

Times, told {US News}: "It's my feeling that the administration

has aimed a spotlight into one of the darkest corners of our

national security apparatus without regard for the damage it

might do to its ongoing operations." [ews]



Shocking Medicare Trustees' Report Shows Obama's Brain

Insolvent--Though Not Illiquid



Today's unsurprising report of major losses to the

Medicare Trust Funds in the past year, and the reactions to it by

the Obama White House, showed that not only is Obamacare a

fascist denier of medical care, but those who try to defend it

become ideological mental cases.

Obama and his backers claimed, in the midst of economic

catastrophe in March 2010, that the Obamacare law's passage had

magically "extended Medicare solvency by 12 years, until 2029."

Today, just a year later, the Medicare Trustees reported that the

Trust Funds have shifted dramatically the other way; they would

be unable to meet all payments by 2024. The five-year swing in

one year had only one cause: Obama's continuing economic

collapse, mass unemployment, and the resulting revenue collapse

from Medicare payroll taxes.

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sibelius idiotically responded to the

Trustees' report by claiming that without Obamacare, the new

deadline for Medicare Trust Fund shortfalls would have been 2016!

She did not reveal how she quickly arrived at that new fool's

calculation. Next year, if Obama is allowed to stay in the White

House and the Trustees have to report the new insolvency date IS

2016, Sibelius will have to get really creative.

It's your collapsed economy, stupid!

Just as great an insult to human intelligence are

Congressional Republicans, and anyone else who continues to claim

that "Medicare spending is the major cause of deficits," and that

"holding down costs," "reforming Medicare," issuing vouchers,

etc. will have any impact on Trust Fund deficits. Like Rep. Paul

Ryan, who said today, "The House-passed budget will save

Medicare."

After today's Trustees' report, anyone who says the Medicare

program will be restored by anything other than Glass-Steagall

and credit mobilization for new infrastructure platforms and

employment programs, needs medical care of a very specific sort.