Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain on Friday said he was initially uncomfortable when assigned a surgeon with a foreign name. Cain expressed his concern during an appearance at the Holy Land Experience, a Biblically-themed amusement park in Orlando, telling the audience that a surgeon who had once treated him for cancer was named "Dr. Abdallah."
"I said to his physician assistant, I said, 'That sounds foreign, not that I had anything against foreign doctors, but it sounded too foreign," said Cain to the audience, according to Yahoo! News. "She said, 'He's from Lebanon.' Oh, Lebanon! My mind immediately started thinking, wait a minute, maybe his religious persuasion is different than mine! She could see the look on my face and she said, 'Don't worry, Mr. Cain, he's a Christian from Lebanon."
"Hallelujah!" said Cain. "Thank God!"
More embarrassment here.
Monday, November 21, 2011
Law firm That Hosted Foreclosure Costume Party To Layoff One-Third Of Employees
BUFFALO, N.Y. — An embattled New York foreclosure law firm that was criticized for a Halloween party that mocked the homeless and was recently shunned by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will close.
A statement issued Monday originally said Steven J. Baum P.C. filed notice of mass layoffs with state labor officials but did not mention closing.
Firm spokesman Earl Wells confirms it will shut down completely. In a statement, Baum says the firm will fulfill its remaining work.
Here.
I guess some of the peeps that thought it was 'funny' to make fun of people being thrown out of their homes might find out first hand how 'funny' it isn't.
A statement issued Monday originally said Steven J. Baum P.C. filed notice of mass layoffs with state labor officials but did not mention closing.
Firm spokesman Earl Wells confirms it will shut down completely. In a statement, Baum says the firm will fulfill its remaining work.
Here.
I guess some of the peeps that thought it was 'funny' to make fun of people being thrown out of their homes might find out first hand how 'funny' it isn't.
Bashin' Noot
George Will: “It is an amazingly efficient candidacy in that in embodies everything disagreeable about modern Washington,” Will (whose wife consults for Rick Perry) said, running through a long list of problems he had with Gingrich. He also mocked Gingrich's explanation that Freddie Mac had given him over a million dollars to be a "historian" for the company. "He's not a historian!" Will snapped. Later, he piled on more, saying Gingrich was guilty of "absurd rhetorical grandiosity."
Paul Krugman: "The Republican base does not want Romney, and they keep on looking for an alternative," he said. "And Newt, although somebody said he's a stupid man's idea of what a smart man sounds like, but he is more plausible than the other guys that they've been pushing up."
More hilarity here.
Paul Krugman: "The Republican base does not want Romney, and they keep on looking for an alternative," he said. "And Newt, although somebody said he's a stupid man's idea of what a smart man sounds like, but he is more plausible than the other guys that they've been pushing up."
More hilarity here.
Repugs Still Want To Screw With Social Security
They just have to mess with a successful financial lifeline, rather than work to ensure its continued viability.
MANCHESTER, N.H. — Republican presidential contender Newt Gingrich is telling college students that he would let them use their payroll taxes to fund private retirement accounts instead of putting the money into Social Security, if they want to.
Younger workers could also opt to stay in the Social Security system.
Gingrich says his proposal would let those workers decide what to do with their money and how to save for retirement.
He says private accounts are likely to perform better than Social Security, even in grim economic times.
Stocks had plunged several hundred points by midday as a special committee in Washington appeared ready to declare failure in its attempt to agree on trimming the federal budget deficit.
More here.
Gingrich is yet another Repug that wants stock brokers to get rich on our retirement.
MANCHESTER, N.H. — Republican presidential contender Newt Gingrich is telling college students that he would let them use their payroll taxes to fund private retirement accounts instead of putting the money into Social Security, if they want to.
Younger workers could also opt to stay in the Social Security system.
Gingrich says his proposal would let those workers decide what to do with their money and how to save for retirement.
He says private accounts are likely to perform better than Social Security, even in grim economic times.
Stocks had plunged several hundred points by midday as a special committee in Washington appeared ready to declare failure in its attempt to agree on trimming the federal budget deficit.
More here.
Gingrich is yet another Repug that wants stock brokers to get rich on our retirement.
Violent Protests Again In Egypt
CAIRO -- For three days, protesters -- mainly young, urban and secular -- have taken to Tahrir Square, the site of the original uprising that ousted dictator Hosni Mubarak from power in February. Nine days ahead of the national elections scheduled for November 28, almost ceaseless clashes between rock-throwing civilians and riot gear-clad security forces armed with tear gas and rubber bullets have wounded more than 1,000 people and killed more than 24. The central square, once a rallying point for a euphoric people's democratic aspirations, has come to resemble more of a battle zone of national frustrations.
In the months since the revolution, party politics have fractured Egypt's opposition. Many revolutionaries felt that the main goal of the uprising -- to end an autocratic and arbitrary regime -- had not been achieved, since the temporary military junta that took over for Mubarak was prone to much of the same behaviors as before.
More here.
In the months since the revolution, party politics have fractured Egypt's opposition. Many revolutionaries felt that the main goal of the uprising -- to end an autocratic and arbitrary regime -- had not been achieved, since the temporary military junta that took over for Mubarak was prone to much of the same behaviors as before.
More here.
Taxes Lowest Since 1955
Beneath all of the Republican and Tea Party grumbling about taxes, one key fact continues to be ignored. According to the Tax Policy Center, Federal taxes are lower than at any time since 1955. Obama has now reduced taxes by more than any president since Dwight D. Eisenhower.
According to the Orange County Register, “For the past two years, a family of four earning the median income has paid less in federal income taxes than at any time since at least 1955, according to the Tax Policy Center. All federal, state and local taxes combined are a lower percentage of per-capita income than at any time since the 1960s, according to the Tax Foundation. The highest income-tax bracket is its lowest since 1992. At 35 percent, it’s well below the 50 percent mark of much of the 1980s and the 70 percent bracket of the 1970s.”
The problem is that the tax cuts have not promoted economic growth and have caused the federal deficit to explode, “Those lower taxes have helped give the U.S. government the lowest revenues as a percentage of gross domestic product of seven industrialized countries surveyed in 2010 by the Congressional Research Services. (The other countries were Japan, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy and France.) The U.S. also had the lowest spending as a percentage of the GDP. But with the biggest gap between revenues (31.6 percent of GDP) and expenditures (42.2 percent of GDP), the U.S. also posted the largest deficit as a percentage of GDP – 10.5 percent.”
More HERE.
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Exposing the GOTP's war on the 99%
The Occupy Movement deserves credit for assailing Wall Street and bringing their malfeasance to the public’s attention. It was Wall Street and corporate bankers who tanked the world’s economy because the Bush-Republicans deregulated the financial industry and then bailed them out with taxpayer money and it is incumbent on Democrats to remind Americans that the economy would not be in the shape it is in without Republicans’ assistance. Indeed, Republicans are frantic to repeal the financial reform Democrats passed so corporate banking interests and Wall Street can revert to their Bush-era tactics of gaming the system to enrich themselves and their wealthy investors. Paul Ryan claimed President Obama should stop promoting his job creation plan and work with Republicans, but Republicans are on a path to repeat the Bush-era mistakes that put our economy in the shape it is in. If anything, the President should ramp up the pressure on Republicans and their policies that promote the income inequality the Occupy Movement opposes.
Republicans have controlled the House for ten months, and have made absolutely no effort to grow the economy or create jobs, but their spending cuts killed jobs and they have fought tirelessly to give more entitlements to corporations, the wealthy, and the oil industry; they have no intentions of changing course regardless the will of the American people or their continued downward spiral into poverty. Republicans can claim the wonders of America and the opportunity for upward mobility for all Americans, but for once, their rhetoric is being met with opposition from Americans who see no opportunity to make economic progress as long as the wealthiest 1% holds most of the wealth and all of the advantages.
It may well be that the Occupy Movement was instrumental in bringing income and wealth inequality into the public’s consciousness, but it is up to President Obama and Democrats to build on that momentum and hammer Republicans for their efforts to grow and perpetuate the gap between the 1% and the rest of America. Paul Ryan, the Heritage Foundation, and Republicans will continue to claim the President is encouraging class warfare by advocating for higher taxes on the wealthy, “pushing a divisive message that pits one group of Americans against another on the basis of class,” and traveling around the country to promote his jobs plan, but they are losing the message war and making matters worse for themselves every time they claim America is an upwardly mobile society and that there are no class distinctions in America.
There is a definite distinction between the 1% and the rest of America, and the Occupy Movement has highlighted that distinction admirably. Republicans cannot win this stage of the war because now the entire country is aware of the devastating results of inordinately awarding so much wealth and the country’s resources to a miniscule percentage of society at the expense of 99% of Americans. The Occupy Movement has started the proverbial ball rolling and it is up to President Obama, Democrats, and the American people to pound Republicans for their complicities in ending upward mobility in America and sending millions of Americans into poverty.
MORE
Republicans have controlled the House for ten months, and have made absolutely no effort to grow the economy or create jobs, but their spending cuts killed jobs and they have fought tirelessly to give more entitlements to corporations, the wealthy, and the oil industry; they have no intentions of changing course regardless the will of the American people or their continued downward spiral into poverty. Republicans can claim the wonders of America and the opportunity for upward mobility for all Americans, but for once, their rhetoric is being met with opposition from Americans who see no opportunity to make economic progress as long as the wealthiest 1% holds most of the wealth and all of the advantages.
It may well be that the Occupy Movement was instrumental in bringing income and wealth inequality into the public’s consciousness, but it is up to President Obama and Democrats to build on that momentum and hammer Republicans for their efforts to grow and perpetuate the gap between the 1% and the rest of America. Paul Ryan, the Heritage Foundation, and Republicans will continue to claim the President is encouraging class warfare by advocating for higher taxes on the wealthy, “pushing a divisive message that pits one group of Americans against another on the basis of class,” and traveling around the country to promote his jobs plan, but they are losing the message war and making matters worse for themselves every time they claim America is an upwardly mobile society and that there are no class distinctions in America.
There is a definite distinction between the 1% and the rest of America, and the Occupy Movement has highlighted that distinction admirably. Republicans cannot win this stage of the war because now the entire country is aware of the devastating results of inordinately awarding so much wealth and the country’s resources to a miniscule percentage of society at the expense of 99% of Americans. The Occupy Movement has started the proverbial ball rolling and it is up to President Obama, Democrats, and the American people to pound Republicans for their complicities in ending upward mobility in America and sending millions of Americans into poverty.
MORE
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Quan Pulls 180, Allows Occupy Oakland to Stay
Jean Quan is the mayor of Oakland, but she doesn't call all the shots.
That was the message the city's chief executive delivered in the wake of Tuesday's violent police eviction of the Occupy Oakland encampment in front of City Hall, in which an Iraq War veteran was severely injured by a police projectile.
"I don't know everything," she told reporters, after completing a flip-flop on the city's stance towards the Occupy protesters, who will now be allowed to stay.
Not that the protesters needed a mayoral invitation. Prior to Quan's pronouncement, protesters had returned in force less than 24 hours after their eviction, tearing down a cyclone fence that was erected to block off Frank Ogawa Plaza, and setting up tents and laying down sleeping bags.
The protesters say they will assemble peacefully, and have called for a citywide strike on Nov. 2. By Thursday afternoon tents were back up in Frank Ogawa Plaza and even a makeshift shrine to the injured soldier was built.
Meanwhile, doctors said the condition of Scott Olsen, the Marine veteran who suffered a fractured skull, was improving but still serious.
NBC
That was the message the city's chief executive delivered in the wake of Tuesday's violent police eviction of the Occupy Oakland encampment in front of City Hall, in which an Iraq War veteran was severely injured by a police projectile.
"I don't know everything," she told reporters, after completing a flip-flop on the city's stance towards the Occupy protesters, who will now be allowed to stay.
Not that the protesters needed a mayoral invitation. Prior to Quan's pronouncement, protesters had returned in force less than 24 hours after their eviction, tearing down a cyclone fence that was erected to block off Frank Ogawa Plaza, and setting up tents and laying down sleeping bags.
The protesters say they will assemble peacefully, and have called for a citywide strike on Nov. 2. By Thursday afternoon tents were back up in Frank Ogawa Plaza and even a makeshift shrine to the injured soldier was built.
Meanwhile, doctors said the condition of Scott Olsen, the Marine veteran who suffered a fractured skull, was improving but still serious.
NBC
Wall Street Isn't Winning – It's Cheating
"I hear [Occupy Wall Street] has a CFO," he said. "I think that's funny."
"Okay, I'll bite," I said. "Why is that funny?"
"Well, I heard they're trying to decide what bank to put their money in," he said, munching on hors d'oeuvres. "It's just kind of ironic."
Oh, Christ, I thought. He’s saying the protesters are hypocrites because they’re using banks. I sighed.
"Listen," I said, "where else are you going to put three hundred thousand dollars? A shopping bag?"
"Well," he said, "it's just, they're protests are all about... You know..."
"Dude," I said. "These people aren't protesting money. They're not protesting banking. They're protesting corruption on Wall Street."
"Whatever," he said, shrugging.
These nutty criticisms of the protests are spreading like cancer.
Rolling Stone
We are all Scott Olsen
Late last night, Scott Olsen, a former Marine, two-time Iraq war veteran, and member of Iraq Veterans Against the War, sustained a skull fracture after being shot in the head with a police projectile while peacefully participating in an Occupy Oakland march. He remains unconscious in critical condition at Oakland's Highland Hospital.
Olsen was hit at close range. After demonstrators rush to Olsen's aid, an Oakland cop waits a few beats before lobbing a second tear-gas canister at the crowd. They are attending to Olsen when the canister explodes, sending smoke everywhere.
OWS
Olsen was hit at close range. After demonstrators rush to Olsen's aid, an Oakland cop waits a few beats before lobbing a second tear-gas canister at the crowd. They are attending to Olsen when the canister explodes, sending smoke everywhere.
OWS
Solidarity with Oakland | Exposing Police Lies
Tuesday evening, and throughout the night, the city of Oakland and its police department continued their crusade against free assembly. Protesters who went to reoccupy the space at the Oakland Library were met with heavily armed riot police, with tear gas, with rubber bullets and with flashbang grenades.
OWS
OWS
Solidarity Statement From Cairo
To all those in the United States currently occupying parks, squares and other spaces, your comrades in Cairo are watching you in solidarity. Having received so much advice from you about transitioning to democracy, we thought it's our turn to pass on some advice.
Indeed, we are now in many ways involved in the same struggle. What most pundits call “The Arab Spring” has its roots in the demonstrations, riots, strikes and occupations taking place all around the world, its foundations lie in years-long struggles by people and popular movements. The moment that we find ourselves in is nothing new, as we in Egypt and others have been fighting against systems of repression, disenfranchisement and the unchecked ravages of global capitalism (yes, we said it, capitalism): a System that has made a world that is dangerous and cruel to its inhabitants. As the interests of government increasingly cater to the interests and comforts of private, transnational capital, our cities and homes have become progressively more abstract and violent places, subject to the casual ravages of the next economic development or urban renewal scheme.
An entire generation across the globe has grown up realizing, rationally and emotionally, that we have no future in the current order of things. Living under structural adjustment policies and the supposed expertise of international organizations like the World Bank and IMF, we watched as our resources, industries and public services were sold off and dismantled as the “free market” pushed an addiction to foreign goods, to foreign food even. The profits and benefits of those freed markets went elsewhere, while Egypt and other countries in the South found their immiseration reinforced by a massive increase in police repression and torture.
The current crisis in America and Western Europe has begun to bring this reality home to you as well: that as things stand we will all work ourselves raw, our backs broken by personal debt and public austerity. Not content with carving out the remnants of the public sphere and the welfare state, capitalism and the austerity-state now even attack the private realm and people's right to decent dwelling as thousands of foreclosed-upon homeowners find themselves both homeless and indebted to the banks who have forced them on to the streets.
So we stand with you not just in your attempts to bring down the old but to experiment with the new. We are not protesting. Who is there to protest to? What could we ask them for that they could grant? We are occupying. We are reclaiming those same spaces of public practice that have been commodified, privatized and locked into the hands of faceless bureaucracy , real estate portfolios, and police ‘protection’. Hold on to these spaces, nurture them, and let the boundaries of your occupations grow. After all, who built these parks, these plazas, these buildings? Whose labor made them real and livable? Why should it seem so natural that they should be withheld from us, policed and disciplined? Reclaiming these spaces and managing them justly and collectively is proof enough of our legitimacy.
In our own occupations of Tahrir, we encountered people entering the Square every day in tears because it was the first time they had walked through those streets and spaces without being harassed by police; it is not just the ideas that are important, these spaces are fundamental to the possibility of a new world. These are public spaces. Spaces forgathering, leisure, meeting, and interacting – these spaces should be the reason we live in cities. Where the state and the interests of owners have made them inaccessible, exclusive or dangerous, it is up to us to make sure that they are safe, inclusive and just. We have and must continue to open them to anyone that wants to build a better world, particularly for the marginalized, excluded and for those groups who have suffered the worst .
What you do in these spaces is neither as grandiose and abstract nor as quotidian as “real democracy”; the nascent forms of praxis and social engagement being made in the occupations avoid the empty ideals and stale parliamentarianism that the term democracy has come to represent. And so the occupations must continue, because there is no one left to ask for reform. They must continue because we are creating what we can no longer wait for.
But the ideologies of property and propriety will manifest themselves again. Whether through the overt opposition of property owners or municipalities to your encampments or the more subtle attempts to control space through traffic regulations, anti-camping laws or health and safety rules. There is a direct conflict between what we seek to make of our cities and our spaces and what the law and the systems of policing standing behind it would have us do.
We faced such direct and indirect violence , and continue to face it . Those who said that the Egyptian revolution was peaceful did not see the horrors that police visited upon us, nor did they see the resistance and even force that revolutionaries used against the police to defend their tentative occupations and spaces: by the government's own admission; 99 police stations were put to the torch, thousands of police cars were destroyed, and all of the ruling party's offices around Egypt were burned down. Barricades were erected, officers were beaten back and pelted with rocks even as they fired tear gas and live ammunition on us. But at the end of the day on the 28 th of January they retreated, and we had won our cities.
It is not our desire to participate in violence, but it is even less our desire to lose. If we do not resist, actively, when they come to take what we have won back, then we will surely lose. Do not confuse the tactics that we used when we shouted “peaceful” with fetishizing nonviolence; if the state had given up immediately we would have been overjoyed, but as they sought to abuse us, beat us, kill us, we knew that there was no other option than to fight back. Had we laid down and allowed ourselves to be arrested, tortured, and martyred to “make a point”, we would be no less bloodied, beaten and dead. Be prepared to defend these things you have occupied, that you are building, because, after everything else has been taken from us, these reclaimed spaces are so very precious.
By way of concluding then, our only real advice to you is to continue, keep going and do not stop. Occupy more, find each other, build larger and larger networks and keep discovering new ways to experiment with social life, consensus, and democracy. Discover new ways to use these spaces, discover new ways to hold on to them and never givethem up again. Resist fiercely when you are under attack, but otherwise take pleasure in what you are doing, let it be easy, fun even. We are all watching one another now, and from Cairo we want to say that we are in solidarity with you, and we love you all for what you are doing.
Comrades from Cairo.
24th of October, 2011
OWS
Indeed, we are now in many ways involved in the same struggle. What most pundits call “The Arab Spring” has its roots in the demonstrations, riots, strikes and occupations taking place all around the world, its foundations lie in years-long struggles by people and popular movements. The moment that we find ourselves in is nothing new, as we in Egypt and others have been fighting against systems of repression, disenfranchisement and the unchecked ravages of global capitalism (yes, we said it, capitalism): a System that has made a world that is dangerous and cruel to its inhabitants. As the interests of government increasingly cater to the interests and comforts of private, transnational capital, our cities and homes have become progressively more abstract and violent places, subject to the casual ravages of the next economic development or urban renewal scheme.
An entire generation across the globe has grown up realizing, rationally and emotionally, that we have no future in the current order of things. Living under structural adjustment policies and the supposed expertise of international organizations like the World Bank and IMF, we watched as our resources, industries and public services were sold off and dismantled as the “free market” pushed an addiction to foreign goods, to foreign food even. The profits and benefits of those freed markets went elsewhere, while Egypt and other countries in the South found their immiseration reinforced by a massive increase in police repression and torture.
The current crisis in America and Western Europe has begun to bring this reality home to you as well: that as things stand we will all work ourselves raw, our backs broken by personal debt and public austerity. Not content with carving out the remnants of the public sphere and the welfare state, capitalism and the austerity-state now even attack the private realm and people's right to decent dwelling as thousands of foreclosed-upon homeowners find themselves both homeless and indebted to the banks who have forced them on to the streets.
So we stand with you not just in your attempts to bring down the old but to experiment with the new. We are not protesting. Who is there to protest to? What could we ask them for that they could grant? We are occupying. We are reclaiming those same spaces of public practice that have been commodified, privatized and locked into the hands of faceless bureaucracy , real estate portfolios, and police ‘protection’. Hold on to these spaces, nurture them, and let the boundaries of your occupations grow. After all, who built these parks, these plazas, these buildings? Whose labor made them real and livable? Why should it seem so natural that they should be withheld from us, policed and disciplined? Reclaiming these spaces and managing them justly and collectively is proof enough of our legitimacy.
In our own occupations of Tahrir, we encountered people entering the Square every day in tears because it was the first time they had walked through those streets and spaces without being harassed by police; it is not just the ideas that are important, these spaces are fundamental to the possibility of a new world. These are public spaces. Spaces forgathering, leisure, meeting, and interacting – these spaces should be the reason we live in cities. Where the state and the interests of owners have made them inaccessible, exclusive or dangerous, it is up to us to make sure that they are safe, inclusive and just. We have and must continue to open them to anyone that wants to build a better world, particularly for the marginalized, excluded and for those groups who have suffered the worst .
What you do in these spaces is neither as grandiose and abstract nor as quotidian as “real democracy”; the nascent forms of praxis and social engagement being made in the occupations avoid the empty ideals and stale parliamentarianism that the term democracy has come to represent. And so the occupations must continue, because there is no one left to ask for reform. They must continue because we are creating what we can no longer wait for.
But the ideologies of property and propriety will manifest themselves again. Whether through the overt opposition of property owners or municipalities to your encampments or the more subtle attempts to control space through traffic regulations, anti-camping laws or health and safety rules. There is a direct conflict between what we seek to make of our cities and our spaces and what the law and the systems of policing standing behind it would have us do.
We faced such direct and indirect violence , and continue to face it . Those who said that the Egyptian revolution was peaceful did not see the horrors that police visited upon us, nor did they see the resistance and even force that revolutionaries used against the police to defend their tentative occupations and spaces: by the government's own admission; 99 police stations were put to the torch, thousands of police cars were destroyed, and all of the ruling party's offices around Egypt were burned down. Barricades were erected, officers were beaten back and pelted with rocks even as they fired tear gas and live ammunition on us. But at the end of the day on the 28 th of January they retreated, and we had won our cities.
It is not our desire to participate in violence, but it is even less our desire to lose. If we do not resist, actively, when they come to take what we have won back, then we will surely lose. Do not confuse the tactics that we used when we shouted “peaceful” with fetishizing nonviolence; if the state had given up immediately we would have been overjoyed, but as they sought to abuse us, beat us, kill us, we knew that there was no other option than to fight back. Had we laid down and allowed ourselves to be arrested, tortured, and martyred to “make a point”, we would be no less bloodied, beaten and dead. Be prepared to defend these things you have occupied, that you are building, because, after everything else has been taken from us, these reclaimed spaces are so very precious.
By way of concluding then, our only real advice to you is to continue, keep going and do not stop. Occupy more, find each other, build larger and larger networks and keep discovering new ways to experiment with social life, consensus, and democracy. Discover new ways to use these spaces, discover new ways to hold on to them and never givethem up again. Resist fiercely when you are under attack, but otherwise take pleasure in what you are doing, let it be easy, fun even. We are all watching one another now, and from Cairo we want to say that we are in solidarity with you, and we love you all for what you are doing.
Comrades from Cairo.
24th of October, 2011
OWS
Drumming and the Occupation
The occupation of Liberty Square is a symbol of the growing international movement fighting against neoliberal economic practices, the crimes of Wall Street and the resulting income inequality, unemployment, and oppression of people at the front lines of the economic crisis. More than a week ago we successfully rallied to defend our occupation from eviction. Knowing that the neighborhood we built was important to our movement, occupiers reorganized the space and prepared for eviction defense, community board and local elects pressured Brookfield Properties, and local organizations and unions mobilized their members in defense of Liberty Square. Brookfield and Bloomberg backed down in the face of this joint effort. #ows has international support, and is part of a global movement for economic and social justice that is only just starting to take form. It is within this context that we must drill down, look inward and converse with each other about our actions in this space.
For weeks, occupiers, working groups, individuals from the community board, and neighbors have approached the drummers on the west side of Liberty Square in an effort to involve them in conversations revolving around their constant presence. The drummers have been asked to stop drumming during quiet hours, to not drum during GA, and to allow other music to enter the square. The drummers, who feel that they are bringing rhythm to the revolution and have a voice that must be heard have felt disrespected and disparaged. The situation has been heated. A division grew within the square as well as with our neighbors. On Oct 13th, the General Assembly of Liberty Square passed a resolution to limit drumming times to 2 hours a day, between the hours of 11 and 5 as part of a good neighbor policy. Many drummers rejected this. A group of mediators began to work with the drummers and reached an agreement that they would instead drum for 4 hours per day, from 12pm - 2pm and 4pm - 6pm. The OWS Community Relations team, drummers, mediators, and several local residents from the community board spent weeks listening, building trust, and figuring out ways for drummers to work in solidarity with the occupation. As a result, drumming dropped from consistent 10 + hours a day, but is occurring more than the 2 hours consensed to by the General Assembly, and more then the 4 hours consensed to by the drummers.
In the spirit of consensus and community, mediation is still in process. The working group Pulse has been formed by the drummers and is working to bring forward proposals to the General Assembly of Liberty Square. This issue has been talked about in the park, at the General Assembly, on forums, and emails for weeks. This is an example of how we as a community share space and how we mobilize together to build consensus between all members of a conversation. Drumming has a loud voice in Liberty Square. Pulse is an important piece of our movement - they are integral to marches, morale, and the general mood of energy we have created. But many within Liberty Square feel as though their voice is being drowned out by the drumming, that it has become difficult to have the conversations that they think are important. We have created a small, vibrant and diverse community within the Square - it is natural that some issues would and will arise, but we hope to work together and continue to effect positive change in this place and in this world.
OWS
For weeks, occupiers, working groups, individuals from the community board, and neighbors have approached the drummers on the west side of Liberty Square in an effort to involve them in conversations revolving around their constant presence. The drummers have been asked to stop drumming during quiet hours, to not drum during GA, and to allow other music to enter the square. The drummers, who feel that they are bringing rhythm to the revolution and have a voice that must be heard have felt disrespected and disparaged. The situation has been heated. A division grew within the square as well as with our neighbors. On Oct 13th, the General Assembly of Liberty Square passed a resolution to limit drumming times to 2 hours a day, between the hours of 11 and 5 as part of a good neighbor policy. Many drummers rejected this. A group of mediators began to work with the drummers and reached an agreement that they would instead drum for 4 hours per day, from 12pm - 2pm and 4pm - 6pm. The OWS Community Relations team, drummers, mediators, and several local residents from the community board spent weeks listening, building trust, and figuring out ways for drummers to work in solidarity with the occupation. As a result, drumming dropped from consistent 10 + hours a day, but is occurring more than the 2 hours consensed to by the General Assembly, and more then the 4 hours consensed to by the drummers.
In the spirit of consensus and community, mediation is still in process. The working group Pulse has been formed by the drummers and is working to bring forward proposals to the General Assembly of Liberty Square. This issue has been talked about in the park, at the General Assembly, on forums, and emails for weeks. This is an example of how we as a community share space and how we mobilize together to build consensus between all members of a conversation. Drumming has a loud voice in Liberty Square. Pulse is an important piece of our movement - they are integral to marches, morale, and the general mood of energy we have created. But many within Liberty Square feel as though their voice is being drowned out by the drumming, that it has become difficult to have the conversations that they think are important. We have created a small, vibrant and diverse community within the Square - it is natural that some issues would and will arise, but we hope to work together and continue to effect positive change in this place and in this world.
OWS
US marine defends OWS protesters against police brutality
With a force of roughly 38-thousand officers, New York City has the largest police department in the country. These days, the NYPD is facing mounting accusations of using its strength and heavy handed tactics against Occupy Wall Street protestors.
That is until one US Marine Sergeant and Iraqi War Veteran put himself on the line to defend demonstrators and their right to free speech.
Six weeks into the Occupy Movement, nearly one-thousand unarmed activist have been arrested in New York City. Protestors have been thrown to the ground, beaten, netted like flies and pepper sprayed. The NYPD’s tactics have been harshly criticized, yet the most profound and public condemnation recently came from US Marine Sergeant Shamar Thomas, as he defended demonstrators from cops during a rally in Times Square.
“Why you doing this to our people? I’ve been to Iraq 14 – months for my people. They don’t have guns. Why are you hurting these people? it doesn’t make any sense. How do you sleep at night? There is no honor in this,” said Shamar Thomas, a US Marine Sergeant Iraq War Veteran.
The lone man that stood up to dozens of New York cops comes from a family of honor. His grandfather, step father and mother served in the US Marines. Sergeant Thomas and his mother were in Iraq at the same time in 2006. Sergeant Thomas completed two tours in Iraq before returning to his homeland, where he now aligns himself with the activist he says are being targeted by aggressive authority in uniform.
End The Lie
That is until one US Marine Sergeant and Iraqi War Veteran put himself on the line to defend demonstrators and their right to free speech.
Six weeks into the Occupy Movement, nearly one-thousand unarmed activist have been arrested in New York City. Protestors have been thrown to the ground, beaten, netted like flies and pepper sprayed. The NYPD’s tactics have been harshly criticized, yet the most profound and public condemnation recently came from US Marine Sergeant Shamar Thomas, as he defended demonstrators from cops during a rally in Times Square.
“Why you doing this to our people? I’ve been to Iraq 14 – months for my people. They don’t have guns. Why are you hurting these people? it doesn’t make any sense. How do you sleep at night? There is no honor in this,” said Shamar Thomas, a US Marine Sergeant Iraq War Veteran.
The lone man that stood up to dozens of New York cops comes from a family of honor. His grandfather, step father and mother served in the US Marines. Sergeant Thomas and his mother were in Iraq at the same time in 2006. Sergeant Thomas completed two tours in Iraq before returning to his homeland, where he now aligns himself with the activist he says are being targeted by aggressive authority in uniform.
End The Lie
Occupy Wall Street. Hell, let's occupy America! It's our country.
Occupy Wall Street (OWS) is an ongoing series of demonstrations in New York City based in Zuccotti Park in the Wall Street financial district. The protests were initiated by the Canadian activist group Adbusters.[5] They are mainly protesting social and economic inequality, corporate greed, corporate power and influence over government (particularly from the financial services sector), and of lobbyists. The participants' slogan "We are the 99%" refers to income inequality in the United States between the wealthiest 1% and the rest of the population.
The original protest began on September 17, 2011, and by October 9, similar demonstrations were either ongoing or had been held in 70 major cities and over 600 communities in the U.S. Internationally, other "Occupy" protests have modeled themselves after Occupy Wall Street, in over 900 cities worldwide.
Wiki
The original protest began on September 17, 2011, and by October 9, similar demonstrations were either ongoing or had been held in 70 major cities and over 600 communities in the U.S. Internationally, other "Occupy" protests have modeled themselves after Occupy Wall Street, in over 900 cities worldwide.
Wiki
But we're safer now. Right?
The eight-year Iraq war cost a cool $1 trillion and today Iran, according to a key Iraqi official now in government, wields more influence in Baghdad than the United States with an embassy staff of 1,400.
The Afghan war, including fiscal 2012, will have cost $557 billion. Keeping one U.S. soldier in Afghanistan - the longest war in U.S. history - is now running a tad over $1 million a year.
Billions have vanished into the offshore accounts of American and foreign contractors. In Iraq, an estimated $6.6 billion are unaccounted for.
More: DE BORCHGRAVE: Calculating the costs of war
The Afghan war, including fiscal 2012, will have cost $557 billion. Keeping one U.S. soldier in Afghanistan - the longest war in U.S. history - is now running a tad over $1 million a year.
Billions have vanished into the offshore accounts of American and foreign contractors. In Iraq, an estimated $6.6 billion are unaccounted for.
More: DE BORCHGRAVE: Calculating the costs of war
Thursday, September 8, 2011
The War On The Poor And Middle Class
Yesterday, Missouri lawmakers began a special session during which Republicans will try to pay for a business tax cut by eliminating a tax credit that benefits more than 100,000 senior citizens and disabled people.
Missouri Republicans are just the latest in a long list of state legislatures that are funding more corporate tax breaks on the backs of low- and middle-income residents. In this case, Republicans are targeting a property tax credit that helps offset higher rent for some of the state’s most vulnerable citizens:
At stake is a tax credit that provides up to $750 for lower-income elderly and disabled people. Called the “Circuit Breaker,” it is designed to be an offset for the property taxes included in the rent paid by people with incomes of $27,500 or less. The tax credit costs $53 million annually. Repeal is part of a package that also would impose limits and sunset dates on credits targeted to developers. The Circuit Breaker tax credit is the only credit slated for repeal.
“The real issue is that many people with disabilities simply can’t own their own homes because they live on a subsistence income,” said Edward Duff of Joplin, a member of the Governor’s Council on Disability. “It really is a sort of parity to offer these renters this shelter.”
Once again, Republicans have shown they are not averse to raising taxes, as long as they are on the poor. The “circuit-breaker” tax credit is such an important aid for low-income residents that 29other states offer property tax circuit-breakers or similar programs, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Killing the credit would raise taxes on groups including disabed vetsand senior citizens by up to $750 a year.
The proposal has drawn criticism from a diverse range of groups, from conservative anti-tax crusaders to liberal groups. Opponents include the AARP, the Association of Retired Missouri State Employees, the liberal-leaning Missouri Budget Project and the conservative United for Missouri, as well as agencies that work with the disabled on the local level.
The Post-Dispatch reports that Republicans have faced such a backlash for trying to repeal the tax credit that the tax-credit package they crafted may be unraveling.
MORE: http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/09/07/313244/missouri-gop-wants-to-raise-taxes-on-100000-seniors-and-disabled-citizens-to-pay-for-corporate-tax-break/
Missouri Republicans are just the latest in a long list of state legislatures that are funding more corporate tax breaks on the backs of low- and middle-income residents. In this case, Republicans are targeting a property tax credit that helps offset higher rent for some of the state’s most vulnerable citizens:
At stake is a tax credit that provides up to $750 for lower-income elderly and disabled people. Called the “Circuit Breaker,” it is designed to be an offset for the property taxes included in the rent paid by people with incomes of $27,500 or less. The tax credit costs $53 million annually. Repeal is part of a package that also would impose limits and sunset dates on credits targeted to developers. The Circuit Breaker tax credit is the only credit slated for repeal.
“The real issue is that many people with disabilities simply can’t own their own homes because they live on a subsistence income,” said Edward Duff of Joplin, a member of the Governor’s Council on Disability. “It really is a sort of parity to offer these renters this shelter.”
Once again, Republicans have shown they are not averse to raising taxes, as long as they are on the poor. The “circuit-breaker” tax credit is such an important aid for low-income residents that 29other states offer property tax circuit-breakers or similar programs, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Killing the credit would raise taxes on groups including disabed vetsand senior citizens by up to $750 a year.
The proposal has drawn criticism from a diverse range of groups, from conservative anti-tax crusaders to liberal groups. Opponents include the AARP, the Association of Retired Missouri State Employees, the liberal-leaning Missouri Budget Project and the conservative United for Missouri, as well as agencies that work with the disabled on the local level.
The Post-Dispatch reports that Republicans have faced such a backlash for trying to repeal the tax credit that the tax-credit package they crafted may be unraveling.
MORE: http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/09/07/313244/missouri-gop-wants-to-raise-taxes-on-100000-seniors-and-disabled-citizens-to-pay-for-corporate-tax-break/
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Rick Perry Got His Conspiracies Backwards
The other day, Rick Perry accused climate scientists of participating in a grand conspiracy to force an ‘unproven’ theory of global warming on the public simply to gain grant money.
Said the nicely-coiffed Governor, "I do believe that the issue of global warming has been politicized. I think there are a substantial number of scientists who have manipulated data so that they will have dollars rolling into their projects.”
Oh, no doubt that the issue of global warming has been politicized. This issue has been politicized by R/W politicians who are funded by the oil industry. An industry that stands to lose money if they were to be held accountable for their role in climate change.
As Thomas Friedmann pointed out tonight on Piers Morgan, Rick Perry’s comment is silly because the typical climate scientist must spend weeks typing out a proposal in order to win maybe $25,000 over 10 years from the federal government to study climate. Meanwhile, Big Oil has contributed over $11,000,000 to Rick Perry during his career in politics. You be the judge as to is manipulating what to keep the dollars rolling in.
It is of more than a passing note that Rick Perry’s Texas is burning. The state is bone dry, hot, and on fire. This is exactly the type of condition predicted by the global warming model.
I believe in the ole adage, “money talks and bullshit walks”. In Rick Perry’s case, it’s obviously Big Oil money doing the talking whenever he opens his mouth about climate change.
The true conspiracy about global warming emanates from the mouths of well-funded global warming deniers who are simply doing the bullshit walk of their corporate sponsors.
I am nowitall, and I approved this message…
Said the nicely-coiffed Governor, "I do believe that the issue of global warming has been politicized. I think there are a substantial number of scientists who have manipulated data so that they will have dollars rolling into their projects.”
Oh, no doubt that the issue of global warming has been politicized. This issue has been politicized by R/W politicians who are funded by the oil industry. An industry that stands to lose money if they were to be held accountable for their role in climate change.
As Thomas Friedmann pointed out tonight on Piers Morgan, Rick Perry’s comment is silly because the typical climate scientist must spend weeks typing out a proposal in order to win maybe $25,000 over 10 years from the federal government to study climate. Meanwhile, Big Oil has contributed over $11,000,000 to Rick Perry during his career in politics. You be the judge as to is manipulating what to keep the dollars rolling in.
It is of more than a passing note that Rick Perry’s Texas is burning. The state is bone dry, hot, and on fire. This is exactly the type of condition predicted by the global warming model.
I believe in the ole adage, “money talks and bullshit walks”. In Rick Perry’s case, it’s obviously Big Oil money doing the talking whenever he opens his mouth about climate change.
The true conspiracy about global warming emanates from the mouths of well-funded global warming deniers who are simply doing the bullshit walk of their corporate sponsors.
I am nowitall, and I approved this message…
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