It has now been reported everywhere that Zacarias Moussaoui, upon being sentenced by a federal jury to life imprisonment, shouted, "America, you lost... I won!" Obviously, he had been rehearsing the line for months, and was prepared to use it regardless of the sentence. Actually, the jury's rejection of the death penalty was a victory for the best values of the United States, and a defeat for the forces of pathological polarization, whether of the GWOT or jihad variety. The symbiotic, even incestuous relationship between al-Qaeda and the White House is illustrated (once again) by the fact that both Moussaoui and federal prosecutors were pulling for the death penalty: Moussaoui to finally acheive the glorious martyrdom he was cheated out of; Bush and the Justice Department to establish a precedent for a capital sentence in a terrorism case.

Will this mean the end of Atenco's status as a rebel "autonomous municipality"? And how will the Zapatistas, already on "red alert" in response to the repression, respond to this escalation? This is very ominous timing for Fox, with the new explosion in Atenco coming on the heels of wildcat strikes and Subcommander Marcos urging Mexico's workers to seize the means of production at the national Mayday march. The taking of Atenco also comes on the eve of Cinco de Mayo—which will afford left-nationalists the opportunity to bait Fox as betraying the fatherland to foreign interests, and glorify the rebel peasants as defenders of Mexican sovereignty. From Reuters, May 4:

SAN SALVADOR ATENCO, Mexico - Thousands of riot police firing tear gas forced their way into a rebellious town near Mexico City on Thursday and freed fellow officers taken hostage in a riot that left one person dead.

Scores of police in body armor swept into the fractious farming town of San Salvador Atenco, 15 miles (24 km) north of Mexico City, and hauled off bleeding protesters amid peasants armed with sticks, machetes and gasoline bombs.

Look who's laughing all the way to the bank. Good thing for Exxon that everybody's blaming the Jews. From the LA Times via Newsday, April 28:

OIL PRICES SHOCK AND AWE: GAS CRISIS
An $8.4B tiger in Exxon’s tank
As drivers reel from $3-a-gallon gas, oil giant pulls in record first-quarter earnings; politicians push new energy policies

Exxon Mobil Corp. brought home huge barrels of money in the first three months of the year - more than any first quarter in company history, the oil giant said yesterday - but it was less than Wall Street expected during a time of sky-high energy prices.

The Irvine, Texas-based company's $8.4 billion net income for the quarter added fuel to accusations from politicians, state officials and consumer groups that the oil industry is pocketing hefty profits while motorists grapple with $3-a-gallon gas.

Exxon Mobil's earnings for the quarter were equal to $1.37 per share, up from $7.9 billion in profit, or $1.22 a share, for the same period last year. Wall Street analysts were expecting net income averaging $1.47 a share, according to a survey by Thomson Financial.

We wonder how he feels to be briefly on the Reuters wire April 30?

Eritrea's last native Jew tends graves, remembers
58-year-old Sami Cohen has fond memories of friends, parents and families in the Horn of Africa. Now there's little left, apart from an empty synagogue
Tending graves knee-deep in dry grass and purple flowers, Eritrea's last native Jew clutches memories of a forgotten community.

Tens of thousands of Mexican workers from a wide range of unions left work and took to the streets on April 28 to express their opposition to the labor policies of center-right president Vicente Fox Quesada and to demand the resignation of Labor Secretary Francisco Javier Salazar Saenz. A major focus was the death of two unionists in the government's attack on striking steelworkers in Lazaro Cardenas in Michoacan on April 20. (See our last report, in which, following our source, we incorrectly identified a steel plant in Lazaro Cardenas as "Metal Steel"; the plant belongs to Mittal Steel Lazaro Cardenas, a subsidiary of the huge Mittal Steel multinational.)

In Mexico City, what was intended as a one-hour general strike at noon ended up snarling traffic until past 4 PM. Different unions affiliated with the independent National Workers Union (UNT) held simultaneous rallies at the Labor Secretariat offices, at the offices of the Luz y Fuerza electric company and at other locations around the city. Workers in the Revolutionary Confederation of Workers and Campesinos (CROC), an old-line union affiliated with the once-ruling centrist Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), struck at the city's most luxurious hotels and restaurants, while about 400 garment workers affiliated with the CROC walked out in the Tlalpan section of the city. The CROC reported that workers honored the strike at textile, manufacturing and assembly plants in the states of Tlaxcala, Puebla, Mexico, Queretaro and Hidalgo.

From El Universal, April 16, via Chiapas95:

The special prosecutor's office set up by President Fox to investigate the violent campaign against leftists more than a generation ago failed to file its report on the case Saturday, the day it was due. The Attorney General's Office (PGR), to which the Special Prosecutor's Office for Past Social and Political Movements (FEMSPP) answers, said Saturday that the report "will be delayed."

Subcommander Marcos of the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN), speaking in Mexico City's historic Tlatelolco Plaza May 3, stated that the Zapatistas are officially going on "red alert" in response to violence in San Salvador Atenco, a village in the state of Mexico which has declared as a Zapatista-style "autonomous municipality." (Notimex, May 3) Later that night, six of 14 state and federal police officers detained by Atenco's rebel authorities, the Frente de Pueblos Unidos en Defensa de la Tierra, were released. News reports said they had been severely beaten. (APRO, May 4)

From Venezuelanalysis, May 2:

Venezuelans celebrated International Worker’s Day yesterday with two large marches that wound through the streets of Caracas. One in support of the Chavez-led “Bolivarian Revolution,