Saturday, December 31, 2011

#OWS Appealing Message & Ron Paul's Dark Side

Ron Paul's Libertarian ideology definitely has a dark side which makes him not much better than other social conservatives.
Victims demand health care as well and scream discrimination if insurance companies claim they have a right to refuse to issue a policy to someone already infected with the AIDS virus...
The rights of the insurance company owners are not considered, while legislation is passed forcing insurance companies to provide the insurance demanded by the victims. The individual suffering from AIDS certainly is a victim ... frequently a victim of his own lifestyle ...but this same individual victimizes innocent citizens by forcing them to pay for his care.
...The concept of equal pay for equal work is not only an impossible task, it can only be accomplished with the total rejection of the idea it’s of the voluntary contract...
By what right does the government assume low power to tell an airline it must hire unattractive women if it does not want to?
...Employee rights are said to be valid when employers pressure employees into sexual activity...Why don't they quit once the so-called harassment starts? Obviously the morals of the harasser cannot be defended, but how can the harassee escape some responsibility for the problem?


Ron Paul quoted in article: Paul Once Criticized Equal Pay, AIDS Patients, Sexual Harassment Victims By Stephen C. Webster at "Raw Story" via Information Clearing House December 30, 2011

UPDATE Occupy movement :

US Occupy protests 'could intensify'




Utah Doctors Join "Occupy" Movement by Brian Moench, CommonDreams.org, December 27,2011


Taking inspiration from the Occupy Movement, last week a group of doctors and environmental groups in Salt Lake City, Utah announced a law suit against the third largest mining corporation in the world, Rio Tinto, for violating the Clean Air Act in Utah. This is likely the first time ever that physicians have sued industry for harming public health.

Air pollution causes between 1,000 and 2,000 premature deaths every year in Utah. Moreover, medical research in the last ten years has firmly established that air pollution causes the same broad array of diseases well known to result from first and second hand cigarette smoke--strokes, heart attacks, high blood pressure, virtually every kind of lung disease, neurologic diseases like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, loss of intelligence, chromosomal damage, higher rates of diabetes, obesity, adverse birth outcomes and various cancers such as lung cancer, breast cancer and leukemia.


As we see in the above quotes at the top of this post  from the article by Stephen C. Webster on potential presidential candidate Ron Paul 's libertarian ideology is not so benign as his supporters believe it to be. Ron Paul's popularity with liberals and progressives is primarily based upon his non-interventionist foreign policy and his views about the War on Drugs . As a libertarian Ron Paul is in favor of more progressive drug policies ie decriminalization and even legalization of some drugs such as marijuana .

 But like any political candidate it is necessary to examine and critique all of their policies and not merely cherry pick the ones we happen to like. This is especially a concern after the election of President Obama who garnered support based upon his rhetoric and style and not on what he in reality stood for ie the status quo, pro-big business, pro-foreign intervention and his adherence to a number of Bush era  policies from indefinite detention to going after Whistleblowers to his Drone Wars and targeted assassinations and his pro-Israel stand to ignoring the police brutality exhibited against the peaceful Occupy Movement protesters and so on.

Ron Paul as we see is also on the side of Big Business and corporations such as the Health Insurance Industry  and not on the side of consumers or workers. He is somewhat mean spirited when it comes to women's rights or the rights of Gays or workers in general. We shouldn't conclude that Ron Paul's adherence to a Libertarian ( Ayn Rand)  ideology is based upon  liberal or egalitarian principles but rather is based upon a belief in unfettered winner take all free market Capitalist principles.  Ron Paul is primarily against Big Government's intrusion upon the functioning of Corporate entities. He is in favor of even more deregulation of the Corporate giants  and is not going to be in favor of regulations foisted upon corporations to ensure they pay their fair share of taxes or that they be accountable to consumers ie regulations regarding the safety of a product or predatory practices . Libertarians in general believe in Caveat Emptor that is Let the buyer beware which means if a business knowingly sells a product which is dangerous to the health of consumers or its quality is inferior to how it is advertised the consumer has no right to return it or to take legal action where necessary.

Though the definition below suggests that even allowing for Caveat Emptor there would still be redress in cases of Fraud but given the libertarian view one should not count on there being any allowable exceptions to such a rule since the view is based upon a belief in the Free Market Place steeped in unfettered deregulated  19th century Capitalist ideology.

 According to this ideology it would be unfair to tobacco growers and distributors to place health warning on a package of cigarettes or forcing Pharmaceutical companies to allow an independent body (peer review) of experts to test their product or review their studies or to force them to list all side effects and other warnings nor would any government agency have the right to regulate pollutants produced by industries -BP for instance would not be responsible for cleaning up an oil spill nor could corporations be made accountable for unsafe working conditions . Nor would employees have any rights only the employer would have rights.

For further criticism of Ron Paul & Libertarianism and Ayn Rand see:

  "Support Attracted by Ron Paul Sends Chills " by Tony Norman  the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via CommonDreams.org, December 27, 2011

One of the most bizarre things about the Republican presidential primary contest is the popularity of Ron Paul.

The Texas congressman has been a libertarian standard-bearer for more decades than that economic philosophy has been popular or tolerated, even in conservative circles.

Along the way, Mr. Paul has developed a reputation as a principled ideologue, especially when he is contrasted against chameleons like fellow front-runners Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich. Because Mr. Paul espouses social-political theories that young people in the first throes of infatuation with Ayn Rand's dreary melodramas take seriously, he is as close as many of them will ever get to the long-dead founder of Objectivism.

Mr. Paul has become an avatar of enlightened self-interest, even while maintaining a friendly, if not necessarily avuncular, demeanor. He's like a prickly old uncle who shows up at a family gathering after years in exile ready to pass on his version of the family's twisted history to the next generation. His outsider status in the family appeals to our sense of adventure and curiosity. The fact that he is feared adds to his charm.

For a contrary view on Ron Paul's appeal see:

" Ron Paul and the Killing Machine" By Mike Whitney at Information Clearing House, December 30, 2011

Ron Paul is the only antiwar candidate who has a (microscopic) chance of winning in 2012. He’s also the only candidate who will make an effort to restore the Bill of Rights and reverse Congress’s decision to allow the president to “indefinitely” imprison American citizens without due process. For these reasons alone, Paul should garner the support of leftists, liberals, and progressives. But he won’t, because liberals are convinced that Paul will try to dismantle the social programs upon which the elderly, the infirm, and the vulnerable depend.

These concerns are not without foundation. Paul opposes government meddling in the market and sees Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security as steps towards socialism. That means, there’s a good chance that these programs will come under fire if Paul is elected. The question is: How should we balance our concerns about Social Security with our opposition to the war(s)? To answer that question, we need to create a “hypothetical”.


and from the freedictionary.com"  Caveat Emptor :[Latin, Let the buyer beware.] A warning that notifies a buyer that the goods he or she is buying are "as is," or subject to all defects.
When a sale is subject to this warning the purchaser assumes the risk that the product might be either defective or unsuitable to his or her needs.
This rule is not designed to shield sellers who engage in Fraud or bad faith dealing by making false or misleading representations about the quality or condition of a particular product. It merely summarizes the concept that a purchaser must examine, judge, and test a product considered for purchase himself or herself.
The modern trend in laws protecting consumers, however, has minimized the importance of this rule. Although the buyer is still required to make a reasonable inspection of goods upon purchase, increased responsibilities have been placed upon the seller, and the doctrine of caveat venditor (Latin for "let the seller beware") has become more prevalent. Generally, there is a legal presumption that a seller makes certain warranties unless the buyer and the seller agree otherwise. One such Warranty is the Implied Warranty of merchantability. If a person buys soap, for example, there is an implied warranty that it will clean; if a person buys skis, there is an implied warranty that they will be safe to use on the slopes.


As Joe Brewer points out the Occupy Movement managed to grow as a viable movement in large part because of it's use of two basic framing devices of the 99% versus the 1% and the notion of occupying . American citizens in general were able to relate with the movement given these two simple notions .

The Occupy Movement has been able to tap into the break down of societies narrative of the road to success and contentment . Because of the inequality of the haves versus the have-nots the old narrative could no longer be sustained . The aspirations of the average citizen could no longer be fulfilled given the prevailing economic and political and social reality in which only a small minority could expect to do well while the majority had no realistic hope of doing well . The deck as it were was stacked in favor of the few and against the many.

Further cause of for grievances has been due to the failure of those in authority to curve the excesses of the rich and powerful . As the system unraveled the majority were left to fend for themselves while the minority that is Big Business and Banks were bailed out by the government using the funds which rightfully belonged to the majority. The majority were ignored and not even consulted about this use of their money which as part of the social contract were put into the hands of their representatives in the government. To put it simply it became a case of taxation without representation . The politicians, lobbyists and the government showed their true colors as they eagerly gave away billions with little accountability or fairness to the body politicand the reasonable expectations of a quid pro quo relationship.

Strategic Frames of the Occupy Movement by: Joe Brewer, ChaoticRipple.com via Truthout.org, December 29,2011

A vitally important example analyzed by the linguist who brought frame analysis to the political world, George Lakoff, is the use of military language to describe the invasion of Iraq as an unending war. Despite the fact that the “Iraq War” only lasted a few weeks (culminating in the capture of Baghdad in early 2003), our political leaders and media figures continued to deploy a frame of war to characterize what would more accurately be described as an ongoing occupation. Note how the logic of occupation is profoundly different from that of war:

During an occupation the use of military tactics to resolve issues tends to fail. Diplomacy and political solutions are what is needed to resolve conflict;
During an occupation the death of civilians is an unacceptable loss of innocent lives. Civilian deaths are seen as unavoidable “collateral damage” during a war;
During an occupation the role of politicians is to be humanitarian leaders, elevating human security in the region impacted by conflict. Politicians become military leaders during times of war and often seek consolidation of war powers that restrict civil liberties at home and abroad.

...The 99% frame evokes a maximal inequality that resonates deeply with the lived experiences of working-class people in the US and around the world. I’ll come back to the significance of this lived experience in a moment.

The power of the Occupy frame is two-fold: (1) It is a verb that represents action taken by one who has power to influence the world, and (2) it demarcates an abstract spatial location that is scalable. The significance of the first feature should be clear — to feel one’s personal empowerment by taking action and claiming a space is deeply moving. One who can stake a claim to space has power. And that power gives them a sense of control over their destiny. This is the underlying motivator for collective action that has captured the imaginations (and bodies!) of protestors around the world, from Tahrir Square to Zuccoti Park.

The second feature is what allowed OWS to go viral and spread across the globe. The demarcation of abstract space, when overlaid on top of real-world physical locations, is a recipe for unconstrained growth. More simply, it is the act of claiming a space that offers a feeling of empowerment. While one physical location was claimed in a New York City Park, the concept of occupation could be generically applied to all physical spaces. This is why protestors in other cities were inclined to claim the OWS brand and stake out their own turf. And, just as the emotional experience of despair is conceptualized as an abstract space, the Occupy frame allows anyone and everyone to claim cultural turf by occupying democracy, love, citizenship, compassion, freedom, politics, and more.

The broad flexibility of the Occupy frame gives it a fractal nature. It applies equally well from the small scale (Occupy Oakland) to the very large (Occupy Humanity). In mathematical terms, the concept is “scale free” and nonlinear. It can grow to fill any cultural container because its conceptual core is abstractable and pliable.

Taken together, these two frames offer a conduit for emotions to flow and actions to congeal. They are the linguistic building blocks that convey a deep sense of injustice along with clear notions about what can be done about them — namely to reclaim public space and take back the political discourse on behalf of the citizenry.

UPDATE GOP presidential Candidates:

Rick Perry: Abortion Okay If Woman's Life At Risk Huffington Post, December 28, 2011

and :




Michele Bachmann: AR-15 'Is A Great Gun' Huffington Post, December 29, 2011

and :








Rick Santorum :

Santorum enjoying late boost in Iowa But divided loyalties might help Romney
By Brian C. Mooney and Tracy Jan, Globe Staff December 30, 2011



Friday, December 30, 2011

#OWS Update: Occupy Wall Street Protests Intensify at Campaign Headquarters; Many Arrested | JD Journal

Occupy Facebook: Protesters Planning Their Own Social Network



Also see: Occupy Geeks Are Building a Facebook for the 99% by Sean Captain at Threailevelblog via CommonDreams.org, December 29,2011
I don’t want to say we’re making our own Facebook. But, we’re making our own Facebook,” said Ed Knutson, a web and mobile app developer who joined a team of activist-geeks redesigning social networking for the era of global protest.

...The impetus is understandable. Social media helped pull together protesters around the globe in 2010 and 2011. Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak so feared Twitter and Facebook that he shut down Egypt’s internet service. A YouTube video posted in the name of Anonymous propelled Occupy Wall Street from an insider meme to national news. And top-trending Twitter hashtags turned Occupy from a ho-hum rally on Sept. 17 into a national and even international movement.

Now it’s time for activists to move beyond other people’s social networks and build their own, according to Knutson.

“We don’t want to trust Facebook with private messages among activists,” he said.

The same thinking applies to Twitter and other social networks — and the reasoning became clear last week, when a Massachusetts district attorney subpoenaed Twitter for information about the account @OccupyBoston and other accounts connected to the Boston movement. (To its credit, Twitter has a policy of giving users the opportunity to contest such orders when possible.)
More Occupy protesters arrested:
Raw Video: 'Occupy' Protestors Arrested in Iowa-December 28 2011.

Published on Dec 28, 2011 by AssociatedPress
Police in Des Moines, Iowa arrested several "Occupy the Caucus" protestors who entered a Wells Fargo bank. The protestors say the bank has not disclosed it's donations to Republican presidential candidates. (Dec. 28)




Also see: Occupy Wall Street Protests Intensify at Campaign Headquarters; Many Arrested | JD Journal

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Homeless people "occupy" abandoned US homes

Uploaded by AlJazeeraEnglish on Dec 28, 2011
More than 700,000 homes owned by banks are empty in the US. Millions more properties risk falling to the same fate due to a foreclosure crisis.

But, fueled by popular anger at banks and financial institutions, the Occupy Wall Street movement recently promoted "home occupations" in 20 cities across the country.

And, the number of organisations facilitating these actions is growing.

Kristen Saloomey reports from Rochester, New York.



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And more questions posed about CIA or other federal agencies in the coordinated crackdown on the Occupy Movement's  protests.
CIA Involved In Occupy Wall Street Crackdown?

Uploaded by NotForSale2NWO on Dec 27, 2011
Read Article: http://theintelhub.com/2011/12/27/cia-involved-in-occupy-wall-street-crackdown/

Uploaded from Russia Today:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lh0BSF3kzgQ&feature=player_embeddedEE

The Occupy Wall Street movement has experienced severe crackdowns nationwide. Many of the occupiers suspect the CIA has been aiding local law enforcement to try to thwart the movement. The Partnership for Civil Justice filed a Freedom of Information Act request to try to see if the CIA was involved in the OWS crackdowns, but the PCJF was denied the information. Is the CIA covering up evidence? Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, executive director of the PCJF, joins us.




and see:

Strategic Frames of the Occupy Movement by: Joe Brewer, ChaoticRipple.com December 29, 2011

Thursday, December 29, 2011

#OWS Occupy Racist Homophobic Ron Paul & Jeremy Scahill: US Foreign Policy Lurched Rightward & Drone Wars & GOP's Extremist Presidential Candidates


#OWS Update:



Occupy Protesters Interrupt Ron Paul During Campaign Event: "Why Do You Hate Gays?" Via Alternet.org, December 29, 2011

Yesterday we reported that Occupy protesters were making their way to Iowa to hold a "People's Caucus," interrupt candidates, and camp out at campaign offices. And last night Ron Paul got his first taste of that plan.



Update "Drone Wars"

Under Obama, a Deadly Drone Network Grows by Greg Miller Washington Post via CommonDreams, December 28, 2011

.
..Other commanders in chief have presided over wars with far higher casualty counts. But no president has ever relied so extensively on the secret killing of individuals to advance the nation’s security goals.

The rapid expansion of the drone program has blurred long-standing boundaries between the CIA and the military. Lethal operations are increasingly assembled a la carte, piecing together personnel and equipment in ways that allow the White House to toggle between separate legal authorities that govern the use of lethal force.

In Yemen, for instance, the CIA and the military’s Joint Special Operations Command pursue the same adversary with nearly identical aircraft. But they alternate taking the lead on strikes to exploit their separate authorities, and they maintain separate kill lists that overlap but don’t match. CIA and military strikes this fall killed three U.S. citizens, two of whom were suspected al-Qaeda operatives.

The convergence of military and intelligence resources has created blind spots in congressional oversight. Intelligence committees are briefed on CIA operations, and JSOC reports to armed services panels. As a result, no committee has a complete, unobstructed view.

...Nevertheless, for a president who campaigned against the alleged counterterrorism excesses of his predecessor, Obama has emphatically embraced the post-Sept. 11 era’s signature counterterrorism tool.

When Obama was sworn into office in 2009, the nation’s clandestine drone war was confined to a single country, Pakistan, where 44 strikes over five years had left about 400 people dead, according to the New America Foundation. The number of strikes has since soared to nearly 240, and the number of those killed, according to conservative estimates, has more than quadrupled.

The number of strikes in Pakistan has declined this year, partly because the CIA has occasionally suspended them to ease tensions at moments of crisis. One lull followed the arrest of an American agency contractor who killed two Pakistani men; another came after the U.S. commando raid that killed bin Laden. The CIA’s most recent period of restraint followed U.S. military airstrikes last month that inadvertently killed 24 Pakistani soldiers along the Afghan border. At the same time, U.S. officials have said that the number of “high-value” al-Qaeda targets in Pakistan has dwindled to two.


...Nevertheless, for a president who campaigned against the alleged counterterrorism excesses of his predecessor, Obama has emphatically embraced the post-Sept. 11 era’s signature counterterrorism tool.

...When Obama was sworn into office in 2009, the nation’s clandestine drone war was confined to a single country, Pakistan, where 44 strikes over five years had left about 400 people dead, according to the New America Foundation. The number of strikes has since soared to nearly 240, and the number of those killed, according to conservative estimates, has more than quadrupled.

The number of strikes in Pakistan has declined this year, partly because the CIA has occasionally suspended them to ease tensions at moments of crisis. One lull followed the arrest of an American agency contractor who killed two Pakistani men; another came after the U.S. commando raid that killed bin Laden. The CIA’s most recent period of restraint followed U.S. military airstrikes last month that inadvertently killed 24 Pakistani soldiers along the Afghan border. At the same time, U.S. officials have said that the number of “high-value” al-Qaeda targets in Pakistan has dwindled to two.
Update Iraq:

Nouri al-Maliki: A Shia Saddam?
Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister accuses Nouri al-Maliki of acting like "a dictator" amid fears of "chaos and civil war"
.by Dahr Jamail Al Jazeera , via CommonDreams.org, December 28, 2011


A bit of Irony as Russia slams the U.S. for its human rights record.

Russia Scolds United States for Human Rights Abuse by reuters via CommonDreams, December 28, 2011

MOSCOW - Russia sought to undermine the authority of the United States as a global judge of human rights on Wednesday with Moscow's first report to detail allegations of torture, phone tapping and abuse by the U.S. government.

Criticising the United States for double standards, Russia said President Barack Obama had failed to shut the military prison at Guantanamo Bay and accused the White House of sheltering officials and CIA operatives from prosecution.

The Foreign Ministry's report "On the situation with human rights in a host of world states," follows China's example in highlighting U.S. failings in an attempt to counter U.S. State Department criticism of domestic human rights abuses.

"The situation in the United States is far from the ideals proclaimed by Washington," Russia's foreign ministry said in a 63-page report posted on its www.mid.ru Web site. "The main unresolved problem is the odious prison in Guantanamo Bay."

"The White House and the Justice Department shelter from prosecution CIA operatives and highly placed officials who are responsible for mass and flagrant breaches of human rights," it said.

Update Republican Presidential Candidates race:

Glenn Greenwald argues that because Obama and Democrats have become so conservative that Republican candidates must show they are more conservative than Obama

Glenn Greenwald: The Real Reason the GOP Primary Is a Pathetic, Incompetent Clown Show via Alternet.org, December 27, 2011

Because Barack Obama has adopted so many core Republican beliefs -- particularly in the realm of foreign policy -- the Republican race is a shambles.

American presidential elections are increasingly indistinguishable from the reality TV competitions drowning the nation's airwaves. Both are vapid, personality-driven and painfully protracted affairs, with the winners crowned by virtue of their ability to appear slightly more tolerable than the cast of annoying rejects whom the public eliminates one by one. When, earlier this year, America's tawdriest (and one of its most-watched) reality TV show hosts, Donald Trump, inserted himself into the campaign circus as a threatened contestant, he fitted right in, immediately catapulting to the top of audience polls before announcing he would not join the show.

also see: How the GOP Tries to Transform America into a Selfish, Souless Place :In the spirit of their self-centered mentor Ayn Rand, Republicans are trying to disfigure America so she resembles Pottersville, the 'bankers town' in "It's a Wonderful Life." by Leo Gerard via Alternet, december 27, 2011

Ron Paul's racism raised as an issue in his bid for GOP Presidential candidate.

Don’t Ask Ron Paul About His Racist Newsletter
By Jonathan Chait New York magazine.com, December 22, 2011


The issue of Ron Paul’s racist newsletters is finally getting some national attention. Yesterday, CNN asked Paul about it — actually just pleaded with him to acknowledge that the question is legitimate — and Paul walked out of the interview.

...Okay, what about the context? There’s his love-in with the John Birch Society. There’s his fierce opposition, even 40 years later, to the 1964 Civil Rights Act. And his long, deep intellectual and political ties with neo-Confederates.

So, yes, maybe Paul didn’t personally write any of the many racist passages in his newsletter. And maybe he personally likes black people and wants them to be free. Many segregationists genuinely loved black people, too. It’s not some crazy coincidence that the people Ron Paul hired to write the newsletter propagating his worldview are huge racists.

And Joan Walsh at Salon.com weighs in on Ron Paul's racism .

Ron Paul’s disqualifying racial ignorance
GOP pols and pundits now attack the surging libertarian's racist newsletters, but what took them so long?
by Joan Walsh,Salon.com, December 28,2011


The sudden attention to Paul’s ugly newsletters, especially on the right, is a little suspicious, since they aren’t news; their racism and anti-Semitism were exposed in 2008, and even earlier.
In January 2008 the New Republic ran the most thorough exposé of the hateful opinions published under Paul’s name – that the Los Angeles riots stopped only “when it came time for the blacks to pick up their welfare checks,” that the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. “seduced underage girls and boys” and the national holiday to honor him was “Hate Whitey Day,” plus various screeds blaming crime on African-Americans – and Reason revealed that Paul mined far-right groups like Holocaust denier Willis Carto’s Liberty Lobby to build his mailing list. But the newsletter controversy, along with Paul’s hateful friends, drew the attention and wrath of mainstream conservative opinion leaders only when Paul began to surge in the polls.

Why Some Right-Wing Christians Love Ron Paul (And Why Liberals Really Shouldn't) via Hullabaloo/Digby Alternet.org,December 28, 2011

Ron Paul is lining up Christian conservative support, one more sign that many progressives give Paul way too much credit.

... Paul's state chair in Iowa is a member of the Christian Right and an extreme one at that) and he's been lining up social conservative support. One of the Pastors endorsing Paul is the Reverend Phillip Kayser who explains his reasons for supporting him to TPM:

Reached by phone, Kayser confirmed to TPM that he believed in reinstating BIblical punishments for homosexuals — including the death penalty — even if he didn’t see much hope for it happening anytime soon. While he said he and Paul disagree on gay rights, noting that Paul recently voted for repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, he supported the campaign because he believed Paul’s federalist take on the Constitution would allow states more latitude to implement fundamentalist law. Especially since Kayser believes that there is no separation of Church and State under his own interpretation of the Constitution.

(Ron) Paul enjoying view from top of polls Gets spotlight as caucuses near by Stephen Dinan via Washington Times December 28, 2011

NEWTON, Iowa — Ron Paul is no longer being ignored.

Returning to campaign in Iowa on Wednesday as the king of the presidential hill — albeit barely, according to the latest average of polls here — the 12-term congressman from Texas was greeted with a swarm of press coverage and a hail of attacks from his fellow candidates.

“It does look like there are more cameras than there used to be,” he chuckled as he made his first stop in Newton, surveying a standing-room-only crowd of a couple of hundred voters who packed into the Iowa Speedway media tent to hear him speak.

And Bachmann campaign faultering as her Iowa chief kent Sorensen jumps ship and Bachmann accuses him of being paid off by her opponent Ron Paul.

Bachmann’s Iowa Chair Jumps Ship to Join Ron Paul [Updated] By Brett Smiley, New York Magazine.com, December 28, 2011

Kent Sorenson, Bachmann's Iowa chief and formerly Bachmann's state campaign chair, has defected to Ron Paul's campaign only six days before the Iowa caucuses. Ouch. "I'm at their service the next five days," said Sorensen, who felt compelled to abruptly leave for Paul, explaining that Paul is the best hope to defeat "establishment Republicans" Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich, and later, Barack Obama.

...The defection has left Bachmann livid. In a statement, she leveled accusations at both the Paul campaign and her former trusted adviser. “Ron Paul is in trouble in Iowa and his campaign is worried about people learning about his dangerous stance on foreign policy and how he will make America less safe."

As for Sorenson, she accuses him of being paid off by her opponent:

"Kent Sorenson personally told me he was offered a large sum of money to go to work for the Paul campaign. Kent campaigned with us earlier this afternoon and went immediately afterward to a Ron Paul event and announced he is changing teams. Kent said to me yesterday that 'everyone sells out in Iowa, why shouldn't I,' then he told me he would stay with our campaign. The Ron Paul campaign has to answer for its actions.”

But Kent Sorenson denies such a charge and argues he is swithing sides because he believes Ron Paul has a better chance of defeating the GOP establishment candidates:

...As for conservatives who are rightly concerned with defeating establishment Republicans Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich and – even more importantly – Barack Obama in 2012, Ron Paul has established himself as the clear choice.

If you are as frustrated as I am with what’s been done by the ruling class, I urge you to join me in supporting Dr. Paul. We can send the national big government political establishment a message they will never forget by voting for Ron Paul for President in the January 3 Iowa Caucuses.
As for Newt Gingrich he may have been in the lead but now appears to be losing that lead and possibly becoming irrelevant as summed up in the article below.

Out, Damn Newt: 5 Reasons Why Gingrich is Headed for Footnote Status by John Nichols The madison Capital Times via CommonDreams.org, December 27, 2011

1. GINGRICH REACHED HIS SELL-BY DATE IN 1996
2. GINGRICH IS A QUITTER
3. GINGRICH HAS HISTORY AS A "ROCKEFELLER REPUBLICAN" (Too Liberal)
4. GINGRICH KEEPS GOING GREEN ON US
5. GINGRICH CAME UP WITH THE LAMEST EXCUSE (Patriotism) EVER FOR CHEATING ON HIS WIVES (alienating the evangelical voters)

and so it goes,
GORD.

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

#OWS SOPA is the End of Us, say Bloggers & Glenn Greenwald: Obama Makes It Illegal To Even Talk About The U.S. Drone Attacks


Obama designates even the existence of the program a secret, which means our democratic representatives and all of official Washington are barred by the force of law from commenting on it or even acknowledging that a CIA drone program exists (a prohibition enforced by an administration that has prosecuted leaks it dislikes more harshly than any other prior administration). Quote from Glenn Greenwald's article : Snapshots of Washington’s essence by Glenn Greenwald at Salon.com, December 28, 2011 

#OWS Update:

Occupy movement helps protect US family home from bank

Uploaded by AlJazeeraEnglish on Dec 26, 2011
Al Jazeera has been meeting families across the world as part of a series about how ordinary people have been affected by some of the biggest events of 2011.



Christmas with #Occupy Wall Street

Uploaded by OccupyTVNY on Dec 27, 2011
Christmas 2011 came on the 100th day of Occupy Wall Street, and was celebrated in Zucotti Park with music, gifts, food, and a Mass led by Father Clyde Kuemmerle of Ecclesia Ministries, which serves people in the parks of New York City.




The SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act ) is a dangerous and insidious attack on Internet freedom and on Freedom Of Speech. It is a Trojan Horse as it were defended by both government and Big Business and those in the Entertainment who have been duped into defending these new regulations.New regulations for the internet will shut down many sites including Bloggers such as this blog . This is being done by the Obama administration  under the guise initially of protecting copy-rites which enables government intrusion and censorship of the content of blogs and websites. The government will hold the major search engines such as Google liable for infractions of the law. This will lead at the least to a chilling effect in which if for instance Goggle is uncertain about a particular blog for self-preservation they may shut it down in fear of prosecution. It is as they say "the thin edge of the wedge". It will create and environment in which government and private industry can take control of what is posted on the internet supposedly to defend National Security, Copyrite and any critique of government or Big Business, Wall Street etc.



SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) is the End of Us, say Bloggers | Common Dreams

also see: GoDaddy withdraws SOPA support in face of massive protests By Nilay Patel at TheVerge.com, December 23, 2011

and:

How SOPA Will Destroy The Internet by Mark Jeftovic on December 22, 2011

I finally got around to reading the text of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) today. While the ostensible intentions are to combat online piracy and the sale of counterfeit goods, the bad news is that the legislation contains elements which basically puts every single domain registered under generic TLDs under the authority of the United States Attorney General.

We have already seen in cases of the ICE domain seizures, improper takedowns and overreach resulting in the takedown of tens of thousands of websites when a single one was the target.

and: All About SOPA, the Bill That Wants to Cripple Your Internet Very Soon by Adam Dachis at lifehacker.com, December 16,2011

SOPA, or the Stop Online Piracy Act, is another one of those bills that sounds like it's going to do something mildly positive but, in reality, has serious potential to negatively change the internet as we know it. It puts power in the hands of the entertainment industry to censor sites that allegedly "engage in, enable or facilitate" copyright infringement. This language vague enough to encompass sites you use every day, like Twitter and Facebook, making SOPA a serious problem. Here's how it works and what you can do about it.

How Does SOPA Work, and Why Should I Care?

The idea behind SOPA sounds reasonable. It came about in order to try to snuff out piracy online, as the entertainment industry is obviously not excited about the many people downloading their product without their permission. The issue is, however, that it doesn't really matter whether you're in support of piracy, against it, or just don't care. SOPA makes it possible for companies to block the domain names of web sites that are simple capable of, or seem to encourage copyright infringement.

This means that if Lifehacker happened to have an article or two that could be interpreted as piracy-friendly, our domain could be blocked so it's unaccessible by visiting lifehacker.com.

And the Obama administration is attacking freedom of speech in other ways by insisting on even more secrecy in government and making examples of Whistleblowers with indefinite detention and labeling them as "traitors" or even Cyber-terrorists.

Obama Makes it illegal to even discuss the secret Drone Killing Program.
As Glenn Greenwald points out the quisling Democrats and the mainstream Media and Obama supporters fail to criticize the use of drones for targeted killings which more often than not turn into Massacres of innocent civilians.
So if it is illegal to discuss in the media or public the super-secret Drone attacks and targeted assassinations then this censorship by the Obama administration could be extended to social networking sites ie Facebook ,Twitter and even YOUTUBE and Bloggers and Websites etc.
For instance the Occupy Movement is highly dependent upon its message getting out through the internet since the Mainstream Media is reluctant to give comprehensive coverage to the movement.
So like the Chinese government and Egyptians, Saudis, Syrians etc. the U.S. government and its supporters see the Internet 's fairly free transmission of information as a real threat to America's security and as a threat to the 1% who control the levers of government and private concerns.

Snapshots of Washington’s essence by Glenn Greenwald at Salon.com, December 28, 2011

...In sum: the President can kill whomever he wants anywhere in the world (including U.S. citizens) without a shred of check or oversight, and has massively escalated these killings since taking office (at the time of Obama’s inauguration, the U.S. used drone attacks in only one country (Pakistan); under Obama, these attacks have occurred in at least six Muslim countries). Because it’s a Democrat (rather than big, bad George W. Bush) doing this, virtually no members of that Party utter a peep of objection (a few are willing to express only the most tepid, abstract “concerns” about the possibility of future abuse). And even though these systematic, covert killings are widely known and discussed in newspapers all over the world — particularly in the places where they continue to extinguish the lives of innocent people by the dozens, including children — Obama designates even the existence of the program a secret, which means our democratic representatives and all of official Washington are barred by the force of law from commenting on it or even acknowledging that a CIA drone program exists (a prohibition enforced by an administration that has prosecuted leaks it dislikes more harshly than any other prior administration).

...The Most Transparent Administration Ever™ not only prevents public debate by shrouding the entire program in secrecy — including who they’re killing and why, and even including their claimed legal basis for these killings (what Democratic lawyers decried during the Bush years as the tyranny of “secret law”) — but they then dispatch their own officials to defend what they’re doing solely under the cover of anonymity so there is no accountability.

...Obama officials love secret, targeted killing far more even than Bush officials did. They’re “always ready to step on the accelerator” (and, of course, they went further than Bush by even targeting U.S. citizens far from any battlefield). Only Admiral Blair raised objections, and was fired for them, and is now reduced to explaining in Op-Eds that these killings at this point do relatively little to harm Al Qaeda but rather do the opposite: they increase the risk of Terrorism by fueling anti-American hatred, predictably left in the wake of the corpses of innocent men, woman and children throughout the Muslim world piled up by the Obama program.

also see:

 


"Secrecy Defines Obama’s Drone War"
by Karen DeYoung at CommonDreams, December 20, 2011


Since September, at least 60 people have died in 14 reported CIA drone strikes in Pakistan’s tribal regions. The Obama administration has named only one of the dead, hailing the elimination of Janbaz Zadran, a top official in the Haqqani insurgent network, as a counterterrorism victory.

The identities of the rest remain classified, as does the existence of the drone program itself. Because the names of the dead and the threat they were believed to pose are secret, it is impossible for anyone without access to U.S. intelligence to assess whether the deaths were justified.

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

#OWS: Truthdig 's Video "Occupy North Pole" & Update at DemocracyNow! On Militarization of Police Forces


Update: #OWS Occupy Movement

Democracy Now!'s Amy Goodman presents an Update on the militarization of police forces in the USA . The police are dressing in full battle gear and treating American citizens involved in non-violent protesters as if they were militant well armed Terrorists or as if they were foreign invaders.



The War at Home: Militarized Local Police Tap Post-9/11 Grants to Stockpile Combat Gear, Use Drones Amy Goodman via Alternet.org, December 27, 2011


Uploaded by fal2grace1 on Dec 27, 2011
Dec 27, 2011--www.democracynow.org — A new report by the Center for Investigative Reporting reveals that since 9/11, local law enforcement agencies have used $34 billion in federal grants to acquire military equipment such as bomb-detection robots, digital communications equipment and Kevlar helmets. "A lot of these technologies and devices have been around for a long time. But as soon as they have a law enforcement capability, that is a game changer," says George Schulz, with the Center for Investigative Reporting. "The courts and the public have to ask, 'How is the technology being used by a community of people — the police — who are endowed with more power than the rest of us?'" Local police departments have also added drones to their tool kit. In June, a drone helped local police in North Dakota with surveillance leading to what may be the first domestic arrests with help from a drone. The American Civil Liberties Union has issued a new report that calls on the government to put establish privacy protections for surveillance by unmanned aerial drones, especially of people engaged in protests. "We believe that people should not be targeted for surveillance via drones just because they are they are engaged in First Amendment protected activity," says Catherine Crump, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union.
To watch the complete daily, independent news hour, read the transcript, download the podcast, and for more Democracy Now! reports, visit http://www.democracynow.org




10 Winning Moments for the 99% in 2011 by Sarah Jaffe at Alternet.org ,December 26, 2011
This year saw working people around the world begin to stand up and fight back. Ten organizers share their most inspiring moments from the U.S.'s year of action.
The 99% Versus Wall Street: Stephen Lerner on How We Can Mobilize To Be the Greedy 1%'s Worst Nightmare by Sarah Jaffe, Alternet.org, December 22, 2011
Savvy organizer and big thinker Stephen Lerner talks to AlterNet about how to take power back from Wall Street.


The Great Republican Crackup: How Angry, White, Southern Men Took Over the GOP and Made Our Government Into a War Zone by Robert Reich at Alternet.org, December 26, 2011

The GOP's radicalism is dangerous for America. We need two political parties solidly grounded in the realities of governing.
Two weeks before the Iowa caucuses, the Republican crackup threatens the future of the Grand Old Party more profoundly than at any time since the GOP’s eclipse in 1932. That’s bad for America.
...The underlying conflict lies deep into the nature and structure of the Republican Party. And its roots are very old.
As Michael Lind has noted, today’s Tea Party is less an ideological movement than the latest incarnation of an angry white minority – predominantly Southern, and mainly rural – that has repeatedly attacked American democracy in order to get its way.
It’s no mere coincidence that the states responsible for putting the most Tea Party representatives in the House are all former members of the Confederacy. Of the Tea Party caucus, twelve hail from Texas, seven from Florida, five from Louisiana, and five from Georgia, and three each from South Carolina, Tennessee, and border-state Missouri.
Others are from border states with significant Southern populations and Southern ties. The four Californians in the caucus are from the inland part of the state or Orange County, whose political culture has was shaped by Oklahomans and Southerners who migrated there during the Great Depression.
This isn’t to say all Tea Partiers are white, Southern or rural Republicans – only that these characteristics define the epicenter of Tea Party Land.
...In other words, the radical right wing of today’s GOP isn’t that much different from the social conservatives who began asserting themselves in the Party during the 1990s, and, before them, the “Willie Horton” conservatives of the 1980s, and, before them, Richard Nixon’s “silent majority.”
...America has had a long history of white Southern radicals who will stop at nothing to get their way – seceding from the Union in 1861, refusing to obey Civil Rights legislation in the 1960s, shutting the government in 1995, and risking the full faith and credit of the United States in 2010.

and so it goes,
GORD. 

Monday, December 26, 2011

#OWS MOVE YOUR MONEY-It's A Wonderful Life Credit Unions versus Banks


#OWS Update:

Another song for #OWS:

Lupe Fiasco - The End of the World (OWS)

Uploaded by theskeeboo on Dec 26, 2011Occupy Wall Street video, set to The End of the World by Lupe Fiasco. Please share and rate if you enjoy it. Special thanks to:
Lupe Fiasco for the cool song. Download the "Friend of the People" mixtape for free (google it)
M83 for the hook (Midnight City is the song)



OccupyLove.org for footage. Visit the site and support that documentary.



MOVE YOUR MONEY-It's A Wonderful Life Credit Unions versus Banks



MSM: Dems Grow Balls Post OWS

Uploaded by TheAlyonaShow on Dec 23, 2011
Americans can enjoy their Christmas weekend knowing that the payroll tax will be extended for two months that is. We'll show you a clip from Ed Schultz last night showing how a politician wouldn't want to give Occupy Wall St. any credit. They refuse to pay attention to the real messages that are being spread by Americans, and not what politicians are peddling. They actually think that Democrats somehow on their own just grew some balls. Take a look here.



UPDATE: Newt Gingrich

Newt Gingrich wants America to own up and be proud of being a Christian Nation in which the laws of the land reflect (his) Christian Belief system . Besides showing contempt for other religions he assumes that his personal Christian belief system is the same as all other Christians be they Protestant, Catholic, Baptists, Lutherans , Pentecostal, Episcopalians, Mormons,Unitarians, Seventh Day Adventists, Amish ,Quakers, Jehovah Witnesses, Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, Serbian Orthodox and a few dozen other Christian sects. As I have noted before once these uberconservative Evangelical Fundamentalists Christians take over they will eventually go after those Christians whom they see as heretics and not "Real Christians".
First they came for the atheists and secularists and liberals and leftists and then they came for the Buddhists, Muslims , Hindus, Taoists and then they came for the Liberal Christians and the pacifist Christians and so on .
As Cenk points out which Christian belief system is supposed to control the government , the Media, Big Business , the entertainment industry and the arts and society in general.
Christian Government Under Newt Gingrich

Uploaded by TheYoungTurks on Dec 24, 2011Newt Gingrich, 2012 Republican Presidential candidate, argues that "there is [a] steady encroachment of secularism through the courts to redefine America as a nonreligious country..." which is "dangerous". The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur on why Newt might struggle with his theocratic vision.




Feds Won't Prosecute Banks Despite Evidence Of Crimes

Uploaded by TheYoungTurks on Dec 23, 2011
A devastating report by Reuters shows that the federal government is focusing on small scale swindlers while ignoring crimes by big banks despite a wealth of evidence against them. The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur breaks it down.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/22/federal-prosecutors-mortgages_n_1164...



Sunday, December 25, 2011

Injustices Continues Even on Christmas Day : Release of 550 Palestinian prisoners

For #OWS Les Miserables Prisoners' Chorus "Look Down"




Les Miserables: Do You Hear The People Sing #OWS




A Song for Christians and #OWS and those who believe in justice, compassion , empathy and the power of love against the unjust rulers and their minions .

Mavis Saples 991/2-Immigration march 2007-Police Brutality

Uploaded by gothgod on Dec 18, 2011
Immigration March 2007 -Racist anti-Hispanic Mainstream Media ignores police brutality -police beating peaceful protesters.
Police riot beating anyone and everone:
The Police target journalists , men women and children as they try to disperse as requested. Even peaceful bystanders and locals on the sidewalks are targeted.
Mirror by gordspoetryfactory.blogspot.com and gord's Cafe December 18, 2011.



Interesting how Christian nations and Christian leaders claim to follow the message of Jesus and yet in reality these Christians tend to pick and choose which parts of Jesus' message they will follow.

Christians ignore the suffering of people arond the globe and those who suffer within their own borders.

Those who suffer from joblessness, from economic injustice , from poverty, from homelessness and those incarcerated for breaking unjust laws.
As Newt Gingrich, Pastor John Hagee would say let the poor starve and the jobless to get jobs even when there are no jobs available.

Newt Gingrich claiming to be a true believing and practicing Christian appears to hate the poor , the infirm, the weak , the homeless , university students, and even poor children. Gingrich's solution for children living in poverty to be put to work just as Children were forced to toil in the 19th century.

Gingrich believes that those who suffer only have themselves to blame either for being lazy, stupid or not devout enough. According to Gingrich and the Evangelical Christians those who are truly devout are successful and those who are not devout are punished by God and so are living in poverty or are homeless or develop various illness all because they do not pray enough or refuse to accept their plight as God's punishment.

Israel last week released 550 Palestinians as if this were some form of real justice. Most of the Palestinian Prisoners including the 5,000 or more still jailed are being held unjustly.
The Israeli government refuses to justly deal with Arabs, Palestinians or Muslims.
But even Israeli citizens who try to defend the rights of the Palestinians or Arabs or Muslims are classified as enemies of the state of Israel .
The current regime in Israel and a large portion of the Israeli people believe that the Palestinians and others should have no rights at all and should be tossed out of Israel and the Occupied Territories.
And for various reasons the US government and Christian Evangelicals defend the rights of Israel and Israelis but not the rights of the Palestinians.

Without the support of the US and Britain and Canada etc. the Israelis would be forced to withdraw from the Occupied territories and lift the brutal draconian immoral blockade of Gaza.
They would further be forced to compromise on the occupation of Jerusalem.
Jerusalem I believe should be set up as a protectorate under some form of international or United Nations control or under control by people of the three religions which hold Jerusalem as Holy that is Christianity, Islam and Judaism.


Release of 550 Palestinian prisoners-Press TV



OMG: Iran dares to defend itself against Western Imperialism.
According to President Obama and his government Iran does not have the same rights as other sovereign states to protect itself when threatened or even attacked by other nations.

Iran launches 10-day naval drill in Persian Gulf

Uploaded by PressTVGlobalNews on Dec 25, 2011
The Iranian military has tested its most modern home-manufactured electronic warfare gear and defeated mock enemy on the second day of massive Velayat 90 naval exercise.



Saturday, December 24, 2011

#OWS XMAS : Muppet Christmas Carol - Marley And Marley & Newt Gingrich The Real Scrooge


#OWS Update: Occupy Long Beach Stages Hospital "Die-In" in Support of Striking Nurses via Alternet.org, December 24,2011

Uploaded by occupylb on Dec 22, 2011
In the evening hours of the ongoing strike by the California Nurses Association and National Nurses United, protesters from Occupy Long Beach held a die-in in the main lobby of Long Beach Memorial Medical Center.



Every Christmas we are told we must show respect for Christianity and Jesus and be willing to say Merry Christmas and bow our heads yet if we speak openly and fearlessly about the message of Jesus we are condemned as "Rabble Rousers ", evil dissidents ,Communists and anarchists.
Even President Obama has cast out any notion of a fair and just compassionate society. It's all about money and power.

If it were not so controversial what we; that is the 99% should be doing is occupying Christmas and honoring the message of Jesus.

So Jesus has been co-opted by the Capitalists and the status quo.
Even during the Christmas Holidays American and NATO forces continue to bomb and kill innocent civilians to further the "Christian Crusades" to spread the twisted unrecognizible message of Jesus to the rest of the world.

and now a message from Wall Street and Newt Gingrich



Christmas with Newt Gingrich, GOP , uberconservatives and the Neo-liberals -
Charity and Empathy Humbug says Ayn Rand.

If Gingrich and other Uberconseratives and the mean spirited neocons, Neoliberals and Evangelical Christians like John Hagee had their way Scrooge would actually be the hero who puts the Christian sentimentalists and other anti-capitalists in their place.
In their version Tiny Tim gets sent to the workhouse. Scrooge convinces the ghost of Jacob Marly that they were in the right and those criticizing them are evil Commie egalitarians who want to destroy the American unfettered Capitalists way of life.
Their slogan is to tell the poor to be quiet and accept their place as God and Capitalism demands.
The 1% are in their view the only real Christians since Jesus they argue hates the poor, the infirm , the weak and the wimpy peacemakers.
Their God loves war and destruction and the free market and the Military Intelligence Security Industrial Complex.

It is odd how those who prattle on about the War On Christmas are the same one's who reject Jesus' message about justice, equality, empathy, compassion and love.

We are told not to politicize Christmas but the fundamental message of teachings of Jesus even now are seen as dangerous and revolutionary and a threat to the 1% and the Rich and powerful who are in control of our society.

Christmas has turned into a bonanza for the Consumer based society and for keeping everyone in their place as ordained by the 1% and the Neo-liberals who promote the ideology of the status quo and the crushing of the majority of citizens.
To reject unfettered Capitalism we are told is to reject God and Jesus.



A Christmas Carol (Scrooge) (1951) Part 1



More indications that the US is moving towards being a Police State:

Boston DA Subpoenas Occupiers' Twitter Info by Joshua Holland at Alternet.org, December 23, 2011

It's not Syria or Bahrain, it's Boston.
On December 14, Assistant District Attorney Benjamin Goldberger submitted a subpoena to Twitter requesting user info and IP addresses for several users, and also displayed his lack of tech savvy by asking for the account info of a couple of hashtags -- keywords used on Twitter.
Goldberger says the information is needed pursuant to a criminal investigation, and orders Twitter not to "disclose the existence of this request." It appears to have been leaked, and you can read it below.
You can send an email to Goldberger at the address at the bottom of the document and ask him what his office is up to, but you really should keep it polite -- he seems pretty litigious.
Subpeona on @p0isAn0n @OccupyBoston #BostonPD #d0xcak3

also see:

Christmas -- ’Tis The Season of Right-Wing Blowhards and Their Faux-Outrage Machine by David Sirota at Alternet.org, December 23, 2011

That right-wingers feel the need to push their faith with such craven tactics in the non-existant "war on Christmas" speaks volumes about the nature of spiritual self-doubt.



Friday, December 23, 2011

#OWS UPDATE #OWSthankyouvideo Gingrich Mic Checked


OWS UPDATE:

OWS Thanks Our Supporters! What We've Done, Where We Are, Where We're Going December 23, 2011

2011 was a revolutionary year for a new movement that is changing the world. From NYC to Cairo, we are just getting started. We are still busy building this amazing movement, and we couldn't do it without you -- our supporters! Let's make next year even better!

(This video was passed by consensus through the New York City General Assembly on Tuesday, December 20, 2011.)



OCCUPY WALL STREET // N15 // D17 // OCCUPY 2.0 // YOUR TIME IS NOW



Time to Mic Check all 1% politicians

This action was done in a fairly low key non-violent manner. Gotta love it
Gingrich Mic Checked this is an action which could be done to any politician who supports the 1% and Big Corporations and Banks etc. before doing anything for average citizens in the USA but also thoughout the Western Corporate governments and their puppet regimes outside the West .
As one protesters pointed out that if he were to hand over a million dollars to Gingrich then Gingrich might have time to speak with the protester/donor for an hour or more.
Newt Gingrich and other politicians are only interested in filling their pockets with money to get elected to protect the 1% so they can make more money after leaving office using their insider knowledge. Or at least to get 100,000 for speaking engagements-they become boosters and entertainers for the elites.

Gingrich 'Mic Checked' at University of Iowa



Gingrich getting Mic Checked - Protesters at the University of Iowa-Part 2


#OWS update from Keith Olbermann
Hey Newt! Share The Loot! Give A Dime To The 99%! Occupy Newt Gingrich!



Meanwhile #OWS across the USA are filing law suits against municipalities, State governments and the Federal Governments who have colluded in the military style crackdown on American citizens peacefully protesting. Even Obama has been by act, deed or silence condoning the brutal crackdown.

Cities that broke up Occupy camps now face lawsuits over free speech, use of force washington Post.com, december 22, 2011
(via Occupy Wall Street Lawsuits Are Still Springing Up
By Joe Coscarelli, NYmag.com, December 23, 2011)
Yvette Felarca is among those suing campus police and administration officials at the University of California, Berkeley, after officers forcefully dispersed a group of Occupy protesters and others rallying for public education last month.
Felarca, a middle school teacher and organizer with the civil rights organization By Any Means Necessary, which filed the suit, says she was standing, arms linked with other demonstrators’, before a line of police officers who moved in after some tents were set up on a lawn. She said she was chanting and yelling when a police officer hit her in the throat with his baton. She said she was also hit in her ribs, abdomen and back and watched others bear repeated blows.
“The brutality was absolutely designed to chill the speech of students in the movement and literally try to beat and terrorize our right to criticize, to think critically and to act on that criticism,” Felarca said.
The university has called it “disconcerting” that the suit contains “so many inaccuracies.”
Sobel, of the National Lawyers Guild, said a lawsuit is also planned in the case of the pepper-spraying by campus police of peaceful protesters at the University of California, Davis, video footage of which went viral.
Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, called the lawsuits an important check on police power. She noted that authorities haven’t been uniformly excessive around the country, but pointed in New York City to mass arrests on the Brooklyn Bridge — which are under litigation — as well as the pepper-spraying of several women and the dark-of-night breakup of Zuccotti Park.

And once more we are reminded that the bail outs focusing on the banks and investment companies was a bad policy since some of the bail-out money should have gone to average Americans to better stimulate the economy . This could have been done by giving financial aid to those who were about to lose their homes, and to increase spending on welfare and food stamps and putting massive amounts of money into public works programs improving highways, schools , hospitals and the levees around the country to better withstan storms and earthquakes etc. It is just this sort of action which FDR took in the 1930s with the New Deal but these days FDR would be branded an anarchist or communist out to destroy America.

The Book of Jobs: “A Banking System is Supposed to Serve Society, Not the Other Way Around” by Joseph E. Stiglitz Via CommonDreams, december 23, 2011

Forget monetary policy. Re-examining the cause of the Great Depression—the revolution in agriculture that threw millions out of work—the author argues that the U.S. is now facing and must manage a similar shift in the “real” economy, from industry to service, or risk a tragic replay of 80 years ago.

It has now been almost five years since the bursting of the housing bubble, and four years since the onset of the recession. There are 6.6 million fewer jobs in the United States than there were four years ago. Some 23 million Americans who would like to work full-time cannot get a job. Almost half of those who are unemployed have been unemployed long-term. Wages are falling—the real income of a typical American household is now below the level it was in 1997.
The banks got their bailout. Some of the money went to bonuses. Little of it went to lending. And the economy didn’t really recover—output is barely greater than it was before the crisis, and the job situation is bleak. The diagnosis of our condition and the prescription that followed from it were incorrect. First, it was wrong to think that the bankers would mend their ways—that they would start to lend, if only they were treated nicely enough. We were told, in effect: “Don’t put conditions on the banks to require them to restructure the mortgages or to behave more honestly in their foreclosures. Don’t force them to use the money to lend. Such conditions will upset our delicate markets.” In the end, bank managers looked out for themselves and did what they are accustomed to doing.
Even when we fully repair the banking system, we’ll still be in deep trouble—because we were already in deep trouble. That seeming golden age of 2007 was far from a paradise. Yes, America had many things about which it could be proud. Companies in the information-technology field were at the leading edge of a revolution. But incomes for most working Americans still hadn’t returned to their levels prior to the previous recession. The American standard of living was sustained only by rising debt—debt so large that the U.S. savings rate had dropped to near zero. And “zero” doesn’t really tell the story. Because the rich have always been able to save a significant percentage of their income, putting them in the positive column, an average rate of close to zero means that everyone else must be in negative numbers. (Here’s the reality: in the years leading up to the recession, according to research done by my Columbia University colleague Bruce Greenwald, the bottom 80 percent of the American population had been spending around 110 percent of its income.) What made this level of indebtedness possible was the housing bubble, which Alan Greenspan and then Ben Bernanke, chairmen of the Federal Reserve Board, helped to engineer through low interest rates and nonregulation—not even using the regulatory tools they had. As we now know, this enabled banks to lend and households to borrow on the basis of assets whose value was determined in part by mass delusion.

Times Wants Info on 'Killing as a Policy Tool'By MARIMER MATOS: via Joe Coscarelli New York Times Suing Justice Department Over Targeted Killing Memo NYmag.com, Daily intel, December 23, 2011

MANHATTAN (CN) - The New York Times sued the Department of Justice for "at least one legal memorandum" government lawyers are believed to have written detailing "the scope of the circumstances in which it is lawful for government officials to employ targeted killing as a policy tool."
Times reporters Charlie Savage and Scott Shane particularly want to see what the Washington Post reported on Sept. 30 as "a 'secret memorandum authorizing the legal targeting' of Anwar al-Awlaki, an American citizen who had been killed earlier that day in Yemen."
"Questions surrounding the legality of targeted killing - especially the extrajudicial use of lethal force away from any so-called 'hot' battlefield where United States forces are engaged in active combat - have generated extensive public debate since October 2001, when the Bush Administration first contemplated whether covert lethal force could be used against people deemed to be al-Qaeda operatives," the federal complaint states.
"Most recently, the death of an American citizen, Anwar al-Awlaki, who was killed in a drone strike in Yemen in September, has kindled widespread interest in - and controversy over - the scope of the circumstances in which it is lawful for government officials to employ targeted killing as a policy tool.
"Given the questions surrounding the legality of the practice under both U.S. and international law, notable legal scholars, human rights activists, and current and former government officials have called for the government to disclose its legal analysis justifying the use of targeted lethal force, especially as it applies to American citizens."
NYT claims, "Both before and after the death of al-Awlaki, NYT duly filed FOIA [Freedom of Information Act] requests seeking memoranda that detail the legal analysis behind the government's use of targeted lethal force. To date, DOJ has refused to release any such memoranda or any segregable portions, claiming them to be properly classified and privileged and in respect to certain memoranda has declined to say whether they in fact exist."

.

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Occupy Sydney Bradley Manning Protest & Egyptian Women March in Protest Against Junta & Matt Damon Slams Obama Again

Occupy Update:
 New Occupy Music video:

Be The Change You Want To See! #OccupyWallstreet #OccupytheWorld

Uploaded by Sterling8music on Dec 22, 2011
#OccupyWallstreet #OccupytheWorld
"We must live together as brothers or perish together as fools." Dr. Martin Luther King Jr

We are in this fight together! The fight is long from over!

1. UC Davis
Police pepper spray students who refused to move out of the way.
2. Occupy Oakland
3. Occupy Wall Street
4. Occupy Atlanta
5. Occupy Portland
6. Occupy Paris
7. Occupy the World





Occupy Sydney Day 65: Bradley Manning Protest



Democracy is Dead Flash Mob - Occupy Sydney



An interview with Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, former assistant secretary of the US Treasury

Uploaded by PressTVGlobalNews on Dec 22, 2011
A distinguished politician says that numerous reports "conclude that the US has by far the most unequal distribution of income of any developed country in the world, and is actually worse than many 3rd world gangster states."



Update Protests in UK

Uploaded by PressTVGlobalNews on Dec 22, 2011
A prominent political commentator says that Britain use of heavy-handed tactics against peaceful protesters will backfire and encourage more violence on the streets.



and from Occupy Wall Street :

Occupy Wall Street: Three months in-Jesse LaGreca

Uploaded by RTAmerica on Dec 19, 2011
The Occupy movement is now three months old. The American campaign against corporate dominance has grown and police brutality against the peaceful protests has been in the spotlight. Many believe that the Occupy movement must step up its message in order to make real change in America. Jesse LaGreca, writer and activist, joins us to discuss the future of the movement.

Follow Kristine on Twitter at http://twitter.com/KristineFrazao




Once again President Obama has rightly been criticized for not delivering on his election promises and in fact "doublingdown ' on various disastrous policies from his misguided policy of Perpetual War, targeted assassinations, indefinite detention, the use of torture and ignoring economic disparities in the US and favoring  bad education policies and doing little to help average Americans facing dire economic situation , foreclosures, bankruptcy etc.

Matt Damon Slams Obama, Democrats: 'One Term President With Some Balls Would Have Been Better' Huffington post, December 21, 2011


Matt Damon, one of Barack Obama's earliest supporters and once one of his most staunch advocates, slammed the President in the new issue of Elle Magazine.

"I've talked to a lot of people who worked for Obama at the grassroots level. One of them said to me, 'Never again. I will never be fooled again by a politician,'" Damon tells the magazine. "You know, a one-term president with some balls who actually got stuff done would have been, in the long run of the country, much better."

Referring to the Occupy Wall Street movement, Damon continued: "If the Democrats think that they didn't have a mandate -- people are literally without any focus or leadership, just wandering out into the streets to yell right now because they are so pissed off ... Imagine if they had a leader."

That echoes the President's own words to Diane Sawyer in March of 2010 when he said, "I'd rather be a really good one-term president than a mediocre two-term president... There's a tendency in Washington to think that our job description, of elected officials, is to get reelected. That's not our job description. Our job description is to solve problems and to help people."

The slam follows in the same vein as a number of other criticisms Damon has made of the President and the Democrats, including in March, when he criticized Obama's education policy.

Update Egypt:

When will Obama live up to his promises of a more just society and a more perfect union or was it all just smoke and mirrors as behind the scenes he works for the Neo-Liberal pro-war, pro-Pentagon pro-Wall Street elites . The majority of legislators in the USA at the National, State and municipal level owe their careers and pay checks to Wall Street, the Big Corporations and the 1% who are the enemies of the People that is the 99%

Egyptian military junta supported primarily by USA who fear a reformed Egypt which might cast aside its role as a puppet for America. This should finally be proof that the military junata in Egypt has not changed the situation in Egypt after ousting mubarak .
The fundamental changes which the protesters demanded from the beginning of the uprising a year ago. Instead of getting real support from the US or that it would be neutral Obama has been sending aid and military and so called policing equipment for dealing with the massive demonstations.

America's Media buys into what could be refered to as the "Purple Thumb" deluion or myth . That is the narrative that by holding elections with a big turn out means the citizens have gained the rights and freedoms and fairness and justice which they want. No this is not the case. Elections are only one part of the creation of a truly democratic state. Election are of little consequence if those in power refuse to set up a democratic government which grants the people their rights and that these rights are respected by the military and the police. The irony is that America is actually becoming more like Egypt everyday as protesters in America are denied their right to peaceful protests or the right to free assembly, the right to free speech , the right not to be beaten and gassed by local law enforcement

Egyptian Women March Against Military Brutality

Uploaded by TheRealNews on Dec 21, 2011
Jihan Hafiz reports on a historic march of 10,000 women mobilized in central Cairo against military






Obama and vigilante justice
Obama threatened veto if there were any exceptions made in a draconian bill he supports which would provide for the arrest of individuals who are considered dangerous or disloyal to the US including American citizens to put them in indefinite internment without a trial . Back to the old King's Warrant scenario.
Of course those incarcerated would be subjected to enhance interrogation techniques which are just a variety of torture techniques to make the prisoners more obedient and to possibly provide a false confession .
Joseph McCarthy would be proud of both Bush and Obama for going after the real enemy the Liberal left leaning American citizens including anyone who criticizes the government or the Pentagon or possibly the government's and legislators friends on Wall Street.
What hell America has unleashed time and again on foreign nations they can now unleash in the streets of America-secret arrests , intimidation, indefinite detention, torture and targeted assassinations ire Death Squads . All coming to a neighborhood near you or your own neighborhood or even your house.



New Military Detention Powers Threaten Basic Rights

Uploaded by TheRealNews on Dec 21, 2011
David Swanson: President Obama in full support of provisions that target US citizens and others with extraordinary powers of detention without trial




And here's a suggestion for a Christmas cease fire . The truly Christian and civilized thing to do is for America to stop supporting the corrupt government which is propped up by the War Lords and the lucrative Poppy /Heroin industry. America should also stop outsourcing jobs to private contractors that is jobs for which soldiers are trained to do and to shut down these war profiteers for whom war is good for business.

Stop the War on Christmas: Cease Fire in Afghanistan by Robert Naiman, CommonDreams.org, December 20,2011

Shouldn't Americans of every faith tradition band together to stop the war on Christmas? Let us call on President Obama to announce that on December 24th and 25th, the United States will observe an offensive cease-fire in Afghanistan, and urge others to join the cease-fire, as a goodwill gesture to promote peace talks.

...A Christmas cease-fire will be the camel's nose under the tent. It will introduce the concept of "ceasefire" into the center of discourse on Afghanistan, where it belongs. After 10 years of Rube Goldberg efforts to bring peace to Afghanistan by the acquisition of some other objective have failed, it is time to work towards peace directly, by silencing the guns.

There are precedents in Afghanistan for a cease-fire. The UN has successfully negotiated ceasefires to conduct vaccinations. There were cease-fires in the past for elections.

Some will object that Christmas is a Christian holiday and Afghanistan is a Muslim country, and what do the Afghan Taliban know from Christmas?

But we have to start somewhere, and the principal political obstacle to a cease-fire is the Pentagon, and the best way to intimidate the Pentagon from resisting a cease-fire is to announce one on Christmas. If we can get a cease-fire on Christmas, then a cease-fire on a Muslim holiday will surely be next.

The Christmas truce has a rich history, one that we should seek to revive. In December 1914, as war raged in Europe, Pope Benedict XV called for a Christmas ceasefire. The Pope's initiative was rebuffed by political leaders, but in one of the most compelling acts of mass civil disobedience in the 20th century, rank-and-file troops carried out the action that the Pope had called for, negotiating local Christmas cease-fires on the Western Front. Christmas 2014 will mark the hundred year anniversary of the Christmas truce of 1914. Maybe, if we get busy, by Christmas 2014, the guns in Afghanistan will be silenced for good.

and so it goes,
GORD.