With God On Our Side? US 8 Syria 90

it's okay to kill children, if you're the United States that is, but not so much if your Syria.

8 civilians killed in NATO airstrike in Afghanistan 

About 30 children among more than 90 killed in Houla, Syria

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/05/27/150285/8-civilians-killed-in-nato-airstrike.html#storylink=cpy

Throw Another Walmart Steak On The Bar-B-Q In The Name Of Glorious Patriotic Jesus Approved War Profiteering

Memorial Day 2012

Der Bahnhof Amberg, Germany 1968

"Once and for all the idea of glorious victories won by the glorious army must be wiped out. Neither side is glorious. On either side they're just frightened men messing their pants and they all want the same thing - not to lie under the earth, but to walk upon it - without crutches." Peter Weiss

In 1965 I joined the Army. I had perceived that I wanted to fight in Vietnam for my country just like my Marine older brother had done before me. It later turned out to be an indication of how naive and ignorant an eighteen year old can actually be. Providentially, I was spared from becoming cannon-fodder by an apparent glitch in the Pentagon computer and other unforeseen forces in the universe. I realized by the time the above picture was taken that most of what we had been told by our leaders about the justification for the war in Vietnam was a lie. Sound familiar?

I don't blame the front line soldiers, for many of them are impressionable young men and women who don't know any better. They end up being a pawn to be used in some jingoistic politician's speech or war profiteering corporation's commercial each Memorial Day.

They are not of course born for this purpose. They are flesh and bone, sons and daughters whose potential as human beings has been suddenly snuffed out by evil or misguided political leaders.

A Crack In The Wall - Police Join Protest Marches

There seems to be some cracks in the wall protecting the corporate controlled state.

The reports of police in Britain and elsewhere protesting is evidence that the police perhaps do put their pants on one leg at a time like other human beings. They have mortgages, kids, bills, and most want to  protect and serve the public, whether you want to believe it or not. What I have seen, especially here in Seattle, is the occupy movement being co-opted by individuals who's main focus is their hate of the police. Or individuals who throw rocks through the Mayor's picture window because of his perceived opposition to protesters or support of the police. I think this focus is misguided and juvenile because the occupy movement is about the 99% versus the 1%. 'Beat officers' are definitely not economically speaking part of the 1%, but they are the pawns of the corporate state. Our focus should be to break this bond not reinforce it.

I am not saying that individual police officers have not perpetrated some horrendous crimes in the name of law enforcement, abused their power, or even murdered. This criminal activity should be prosecuted. But that aspect of police activities should not become the main focus of the occupy movement. Our purpose is the dismantling of a corporate oligarchy that corrupts our economic and political institutions and is at war with nature. 

"Our efforts must be directed toward acts of civil disobedience, to chipping away, through nonviolent protest, at the pillars of established, corporate power. The corporate state is so unfair, so corrupt and so rotten that the institutions tasked with holding it up—the police, the press, the banking system, the civil service and the judiciary—have become vulnerable. It is becoming harder and harder for the corporations to convince its foot soldiers to hold the system in place." Chris Hedges November 2011

Note: I early posted a photo supposedly of Frankfurt police who had removed their helmets and join in the protest on May 19th. This photo has apparently been debunked as a photoshop. But whether the photo was doctored or not, we will have to find out,  I don't think it changes the point of my post.

The More Things Supposedly Change The More They Remain The Same

Mark Karlin , Editor of Buzzflash at Truthout gives us something to thing about.

"there is a significant segment of the US population that is so full of a self-eviscerating hate -- due to the need for feeling affirmation and empowerment from an Anglo Saxon ruling class -- that their bilious loathing may fatally wound a nation founded upon the resilience of an evolving democracy."

I'm Running For Democratic National Convention Delegate In WA 7th CD - Here Is A list Of The Experience That Should Qualify Or Perhaps Not Qualify Me For The Position

'Experience is the teacher of all things,' Julius Caesar c. 52 BC

By: Daniel O'Brien 

Here is the list of my experience, and other random observations formatted in a flow of consciousness style.   

• Glenn Beck recently called me a 'Communist' on his internet based show, which is probably enough of a reason to vote for me already.
• I'm not a communist even if Glenn Beck says I am.
• If you ask me what my main occupation is now, I'd answer, I'm an 'artist and theater producer'.
• I'm 65 years of age.
• I have a good sense of humor.
• I don't agree with everything President Obama has done during his first term, but whole-heartedly support his reelection.
• I've been the elected Democratic Party PCO for Carpenter Precinct on Vashon Island for over three years. 
• I worked as a local union business agent and organizer for the Office Workers Union Local 8 and later was the shop steward for the Teamsters Union while employed by the City Of Seattle. I was elected a delegate to the Teamster International Union Convention during the time I was a shop steward for the union.

Catholic Church Now Thinks Girls Scouts Are Unknowingly Being Turned Into Little Sluts

US Bishops apparently now investigating Girl Scouts of America for what they believe is 'slutty' behavior, or whenever Bill Donahue of the Catholic League opens his month you know some crazy ass idiotic wing-nut dogma is about to come out. This guy makes all US Catholics (that are left) and people of Irish desent want to slit their wrists.

Drudge Report Once Again Proven To Be 'Lying Bowl Of Lukewarm Shit'

The 'Drudge Report' once again proves to be a reliable tool of the oligarchs and their misinformation campaign. If you want to see GOP talking points in advance just check Drudge each morning for the latest list of lies and fabrications.

The story has a intro above it that indicated. "OBAMA LIT AGENT, 1991: 'Barack Obama, the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review, was born in Kenya and raised in Indonesia and Hawaii'... Used bio until 2007..."

The 'sack of lying shit story' is based on Breitbart News reports on a promotional booklet produced in 1991 by Barack Obama's then-literary agency which describes the author as "born in Kenya and raised in Indonesia and Hawaii."

Then this happened:

Miriam Goderich issued the following statement to Political Wire:

"You're undoubtedly aware of the brouhaha stirred up by Breitbart about the erroneous statement in a client list Acton & Dystel published in 1991 (for circulation within the publishing industry only) that Barack Obama was born in Kenya. This was nothing more than a fact checking error by me -- an agency assistant at the time. There was never any information given to us by Obama in any of his correspondence or other communications suggesting in any way that he was born in Kenya and not Hawaii. I hope you can communicate to your readers that this was a simple mistake and nothing more."

Full disclosure: I am a client of the same literary agency.

Via The Dish

Video: Plaintiff Chris Hedges Hails "Monumental" Ruling Blocking NDAA Indefinite Detention

Via: Democracy Now

Freedom 7 Win Preliminary injunction Blocking Indefinite Detention Provisions Of NDAA

MANHATTAN (CN)

Via the Courthouse News Service

'A federal judge granted a preliminary injunction late Wednesday to block provisions of the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act that would allow the military to indefinitely detain anyone it accuses of knowingly or unknowingly supporting terrorism.

Signed by President Barack Obama on New Year's Eve, the 565-page NDAA contains a short paragraph, in statute 1021, letting the military detain anyone it suspects "substantially supported" al-Qaida, the Taliban or "associated forces." The indefinite detention would supposedly last until "the end of hostilities."

Freedom 7 Plaintiff Alexa O'Brien

In a 68-page ruling blocking this statute, U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest agreed that the statute failed to "pass constitutional muster" because its broad language could be used to quash political dissent.

"There is a strong public interest in protecting rights guaranteed by the First Amendment," Forrest wrote. "There is also a strong public interest in ensuring that due process rights guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment are protected by ensuring that ordinary citizens are able to understand the scope of conduct that could subject them to indefinite military detention."

Weeks after Obama signed the law, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges filed a lawsuit against its so-called "Homeland Battlefield" provisions.

Several prominent activists, scholars and politicians subsequently joined the suit, including Pentagon Papers whistle-blower Daniel Ellsberg; Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Noam Chomsky; Icelandic parliamentarian Birgitta Jonsdottir; Kai Wargalla, an organizer from Occupy London; and Alexa O'Brien, an organizer for the New York-based activist group U.S. Day of Rage. They call themselves the Freedom Seven.

In a signing statement, Obama contended that the language in Section 1021 "breaks no new ground" and merely restates the 2001 Authorization to Use Military Force (AUMF).

Why We Need Some Stimulus - Unemployment Rate Without Government Job Cuts: 7.1%

Republican efforts to cut debt and ignore authorizing more stimulus for state and local government to use to hire workers keep unemployment higher then it needs to be. The massive layoff of government workers also weakens public employee unions and their political power.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

French And Greek Elections Touch Off Debt Reduction Bean Counter Freakout

Vive La France!.

The wrong headed and destructive use of austerity measures has banksters, bond traders, supply-siders and rightwing government bean counters in a quandary after elections in Europe. The way forward and the effects of the election of the socialist Hollande in France and the rejection of austerity in other European elections will not be fully understood quickly. But it has been clear from the beginning of the financial crisis to Keynesians that austerity, fear of piling up sovereign debt and inflation are not as dangerous as they have been made out to be.

Of course these bean counters seem to have little problem with justifying the waste of trillions on needless wars or corporate and financial industry swindling or the reduction of civil liberties or having the 1% pay their fair share in taxes.

A major part of the call for debt reduction in the United States is actually a veiled attempt by the right to destroy public sector unions along with their political power. It also is aimed at cutting the social safety net for the middle class. Keynesians argue that in times like these government spending is the only effective real engine of the economy large enough to create the number of jobs necessary to return to fuller employment and prosperity. When 70% of our economy is based on consumer spending it's not hard to see that creating jobs that put money in the pockets of the middle class that they will spend is paramount to bringing about real recovery. Cutting payrolls and government jobs has the opposite effect and has significantly driven up the unemployment rate which is something that election year Republicans seem happy about.

Austerity policies have obviously failed to stimulate global economies. Europe is already entering a double dip recession and the United States may not be far behind. The European elections may signal the beginning of a global change of course. How this shift in one of Europe's largest economies will effect the forces behind rightwing debt reduction ideology versus the forces calling for more government stimulus in the United States will be interesting to see in this election year. Can Obama make an effective case for more spending instead of less, or will he continue to triangulate his position on the subject out of fear of moderate voters and economic illiterates turning on him.  It would appear that working class people in Europe understand the argument for more spending. Not so much in the USA I'm afraid. 

Simple minded Americans see debt reduction akin to 'balancing their checkbook at the kitchen table'. The right loves to use this stupid metaphor to argue for balanced budgets and 'living within your means'. Unfortunately, balancing your checkbook at the kitchen table and living within you means has little or no relation to reality when your talking about manipulating complicated global economies. 

'Mic Check' - Occupy's Muddled Message

"Welcome to May Day in New York 2012. Chaotic, creative, inchoate, diffuse. Was it a glimpse of what post-industrial solidarity just might look like in the century ahead? Or another display of what remains, when organized worker power has been wiped out?" Laura Flanders in The Nation

Austerity Sucks! But Do US And European Lawmakers Know Or Even Give A Shit?

Here's a Business Insider interview with Paul Krugman, the unrepentant world champion of Keynesian economics. Krugman makes the very logical argument that governments that support the austerity mantra are just wrong and actually should be 'doing the exact opposite of what we are doing now'. He says that US prosperity would return in 18 months if the political obstacles could be removed and governments would start spending more on such things as rehiring public employees.

Is Your Attention Span 45 Minutes Long? If So Watch This Bill Moyer Video Interview With Marty Kaplan

Once again Bill Moyer brings us information on the cancer of 'big money, big media and politics'. With the help of guest Marty Kaplan he looks into the present day big media vortex that attempts to manipulate nearly every aspect of our daily lives while providing little in the way of useful or informed information.

Misguided Violence Prone Anarchists Are A Threat To OWS And The 99% Movement In Seattle

In the run up to worldwide action by the Occupy Movement on May 1st I have a few thoughts I'd like to share. Let's call it my attempt to call out those who may seem well meaning, but who's actions ultimately can do irrevocable damage to our movement.

My advise and plea is,  that if your a troublemaker or anarchist into gratuitous violence or meaningless petty property destruction to prove your faulty points, no matter how justified you may think they are, please just stay home. Or better yet, take your misguided politics to the scrapheap of history where they belong. That is, unless you can bring yourself to see the paramount importance of a strict adherence to the principle of nonviolence. There can be no exceptions to this principle.

The Occupy Movement does not need you and your tactics. Petty vandalism, police baiting and violence no matter how it is directed rewards the forces of the corporate state by alienating the real and potential supporters of the 99% movement. It justifies retaliation by the police state. Nonviolence is the key to the ultimate success and growth of the OWS movement. Which if you haven't realized it yet, is a force that at its core is a nonviolent movement seeking economic and social justice, peace, empathy for others and the growth of compassion for our fellow human beings. Even love and empathy for our enemies free from the usual knuckle-headed mindless tactics of the sixties or the outdated violence of past WTO protests. Our powerlessness is actually our strength. This may seem counterintuitive, but it is ultimately true. This powerlessness along with self-discipline, honesty and transparency are the neutron bombs and moral justification that must underpin the 99% movement.

"It appears to me that the resources of the state, or tremendous resources of the state, have been employed against the occupy movement. We seen that externally with the physical eradication of occupy encampments. It been more difficult to see internally. How they are working to subvert the movement. But I think it's very clear what the goal is, the goal is to sever the movement from the main stream. Because the occupy movement is fundamentally a main stream movement". Chris Hedges April 2012

I have posted in the past about how elements of the early Occupy Seattle movement lacked creativity and intelligence when it was sorely needed. I was there at the beginning of the Occupy Seattle movement and there was a window of opportunity to grow the movement significantly. Several of the early protest were supported by large numbers of sympathetic demonstrators with whom the OWS movement's message had resonated. Here in Seattle much of this good will towards the movement was soon squandered by a lack of creativity on the part of the movement's facilitators who, more often than not, were more inclined to resort to needless and often pointless confrontations with authority than promoting a movement based on protected and rational civil disobedience aimed at addressing widespread economic and social injustices.

click to enlarge

At that time local Occupy Seattle protesters enjoyed wide support from a liberal bent citizenship, liberal press, left leaning elements within the local political establishment and the local labor movement. But much of this support was alienated in the wake of what seemed to be one stupid tactical move after another.  The movement seemed to be fronted by a core group of police hating, petty violence prone dogma ranting anarchists and uncreative types who struggled to come up with a tactical plan that didn't resort to direct and often pointless confrontations directly with the police or the Mayor's office for the sake of confrontation. 

These tactics created a question in the minds of main stream sympathizers I believe because it seemed to lack much creativity or analytical thinking or simply missed the point of why we protest entirely. The protesters seemed to often overlooking  the main themes of the Occupy movement, direct action and occupation in an attempt to awaken the main stream to the morality of the economic injustices that were going on around us everywhere, the destruction of the middle class and the growth of the power of the corporate state who controls it all.

Occupy Seattle and the occupy movement as a whole must adhere to nonviolence at all costs and find a way to become a creative intelligent force for good if there is any hope of gaining wide spread support from citizens. This maybe a difficult goal given the state of the occupy movement's track record and public image here in Seattle. Perhaps we have screwed up our one chance to make a point already with many. This is the reality I think we face on May 1st and in the coming months if we wish to grow this movement into one that cannot be ignored by the powers that attempt to control us and now block the progress and justice we seek. 

Welcome To The Gulag Suckers - What Will You Say When They Come For You?

"A new exposé in Wired Magazine reveals details about how the National Security Agency is quietly building the largest spy center in the country in Bluffdale, Utah, as part of a secret NSA surveillance program codenamed "Stellar Wind." We speak with investigative reporter James Bamford, who says the NSA has established listening posts throughout the nation to collect and sift through billions of email messages and phone calls, whether they originate within the country or overseas."

NSA Whistle Blower Gives Us Shocking Look At The Massive Scope Of US Domestic Surveillance

"Flowing through its servers and routers and stored in near-bottomless databases will be all forms of communication, including the complete contents of private emails, cell phone calls, and Google searches, as well as all sorts of personal data trails—parking receipts, travel itineraries, bookstore purchases, and other digital “pocket litter.” 
NSA Whistleblower, William Binney

WLCentral: 2011-04-21 List of possible NSA interception point locations and VIDEO of Whitney Surveillance teach-in wlcentral.org/node/2561
— Alexa O'Brien (@carwinb) April 21, 2012

Read the source article by Alexa O'Brien and see the video interview of William Binney at WL Central '2012-04-21 List of possible NSA interception point locations and VIDEO of Whitney Surveillance teach-in'

Main Stream Media Finally Compelled To Cover NDAA Lawsuit By Freedom 7

The LA Times has a feature story on the ongoing lawsuit by civil libertarians and activists over the provisions of the NDAA, which went into effect on March 1st.  You can learn more about the lawsuit at
www.stopndaa.org/.

Stop NDAA - Freedom 7 Lawsuit Poster

More information on how you can help at www.stopndaa.org

It's Absurd But US Intelligence And Security Apparatus Have Labeled My Daughter An al-Qaida Sympathizer - NDAA Comes Home To Roost

Having a daughter branded as a terrorist, or sympathizing or associating with terrorists is one probability most citizens feel will never happen to them.

Like pigs feeding at the trough, many Americans are so involved in gorging themselves on the slop that's doled out to them they fail to see that there is a probability of each of them being singled out as the next side of bacon by the modern day out of control, massive, make it up as you go, mostly corporate controlled US security apparatus and police state.

"The security and surveillance state does not deal in nuance or ambiguity. Its millions of agents, intelligence gatherers, spies, clandestine operatives, analysts and armed paramilitary units live in a binary world of opposites, of good and evil, black and white, opponent and ally. There is nothing between. You are for us or against us. You are a patriot or an enemy of freedom. You either embrace the crusade to physically eradicate evildoers from the face of the Earth or you are an Islamic terrorist, a collaborator or an unwitting tool of terrorists. And now that we have created this monster it will be difficult, perhaps impossible, to free ourselves from it. Our 16 national intelligence agencies and army of private contractors feed on paranoia, rumor, rampant careerism, demonization of critical free speech and often invented narratives. They justify their existence, and their consuming of vast governmental resources, by turning even the banal and the mundane into a potential threat. And by the time they finish, the nation will be a gulag." 

Sound far fetched? It's not because it has happened to my politically active daughter Alexa O'Brien. Her only transgression was to question America's political institutions and actively involve herself in forming an organization to reform US election laws. Specifically the organization she founded was attempting to get corporate money out of politics and reform the financing of political campaigns. The organization US Day Of Rage became one of the founding organizations involved with the Occupy Wall Street Movement in the spring and summer of 2011.

She has also been outspoken and active in her support for Bradley Manning, Julian Assange and WikiLeaks. She is a blogger, journalist, social media wizard and contributed posts to blogs like WikiLeaks Central. To name just a few of her entirely legally protected political activities. She also preached and maintained a strict policy and adherence to nonviolence in the course of all of her politically involved activities including those with US Days Of Rage and the Occupy movement.

"Alexa O’Brien, a content strategist and information architect who co-founded the U.S. Day of Rage, an organization created to reform the election process and wrest it back from corporate hands, was the first plaintiff to address the court. She testified that when WikiLeaks released 5 million emails from Stratfor, a private security firm that does work for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the Marine Corps and the Defense Intelligence Agency, she discovered that the company was attempting to link her and her organization to Islamic radicals and websites as well as jihadist ideology."

Seems like one citizen fed-up with the corruption of our political institutions exercising her constitutional rights?  It doesn't matter if you agree with her politics or means for her to be allowed to do what she sees as what should be done, by the way. It's generally called free speech and freedom of assembly. But her activism cost her her income, security and job and put her personal reputation and possibly even her personal freedom on the line. What would you do if it were your daughter, friend or associate, or even Malia Obama.... Mr President?

'This is what the US police state looks like when it's fully brought to bear on one citizen determined to change it.'

When I visited her in New York in July 2011 we talked about her plans and involvement in the coming occupy movement and US Day Of Rage. Civil disobedience and nonviolence was discussed extensively. We talked and argued about reforming government. We laughed about the mostly right wing internet chatter that had begun to paint US Day of Rage and the Occupy Movement as hippies and potentially riotous troublemakers. Basically, it appeared the movement probably consisted of a few hundred supporters and computer and social media aware activists at the time. There were legitimate concerns that when the occupy wall street demonstration was scheduled to start on September 17, 2011 no one would show up. 

She voiced her support of US government institutions, but felt they had become so corrupted by money and the right-left conundrum of phony political positions that it was time for direct action. She believed direct action was the only path remaining if there was any hope of saving the republic. This moved her and her comrades to conceive and develop the idea of occupying New York's financial district. Based loosely on the idea of the occupations that took place during the Arab Spring.

Neither of us realized at the time that the occupy movement would strike a chord with the masses in the way that it did and would become the massive reform movement it is today that has literally changed and fuels our national conversation about needed political reform. It shows you what a few concerned and determined citizens can do given the bravery, will power, work ethic and intelligence to take on a corrupt state.

In the course of her involvement with the Occupy Wall Street Movement and with the US Days Of Rage the US intelligence apparatus was taking notes of course. Falling over themselves to brand anyone they could as somehow remotely connect to generic international terrorism and to justify their existence and pay checks they began to focus on her organization US Day Of Rage and the occupy movement's activities.


The mammoth self-perpetuating wheels of the police state are now turning.


This proves that laws like the NDAA are dangerous and most definitely unconstitutional. This is the same law that was fathered in part by several 'progressive' Democrats and signed by constitutional lawyer and President Barack Obama. It gives the government almost unlimited power to arrest and detain US citizens who are determined to be 'terrorists', associated with terrorists or who in some government intelligence contractor's bureaucratic mind 'substantially supported al-Qaida, the Taliban or associated forces'.  

Alexa is now bravely involved as one of the plaintiffs along with Chris Hedges, a journalist; Daniel Ellsberg, who is known for releasing the Pentagon Papers; Noam Chomsky, a well-known writer; Icelandic MP Birgitta Jonsdottir; Tangerine Bolen, founder of RevolutionTruth.org; Kai Wargalla, deputy director of Revolution Truth and founder of Occupy London in a lawsuit to block the implementation of the section of the NDAA that allows for detention of citizens based on conjecture and without due process. Dubbed the 'freedom seven' by their lawyers they fight not only for their individual rights and freedom but for everyone's. 

If you would like to help Alexa O'Brien with financial support with her expenses in covering the Bradley Manning proceedings you can contribute here.

Quotes from Chis Hedges article 'Someone You Love: Coming to a Gulag Near You' which originally appeared in Truthdig

No More Freaking War Period - Fire Fat Ass Limbaugh Too - Enough!

We're not Israel's gofer.... Especially the present day Israel. We need to act like a honest broker when it comes to the Palestinians and Israel.  If Obama really hates war he should stop kissing Israel's ass every chance he gets and stand up to their expansionism and saber rattling.

While the war weary people are not making war no more we should also occupy Rush Limbaugh everywhere he pops up and once and for all get rid of this cancer of American discourse. The future is calling in case you hadn't notice.

Sign From God? - Global Climate Change Wipes Out Big Red Neck Car Race

Daytona's annual NASCAR car race had to be cancelled for the first time in history due to unseasonable rain storms that hit central Florida. Rednecks still don't think that climate change exists.

'Romney - You Magnificent Bastard I Read Your Book'

"You know how I'm sure they're finished out there? The carts. They're using carts to move their wounded and the supplies. The carts came to me in my dream. I couldn't figure it out. Then I remembered, that nightmare in the snow. The agonizing retreat from Moscow. How cold it was. They threw the wounded and what was left of the supplies in the carts." George C Scott from the movie 'Patton'

Via: Wonkette

Iran War Hawks And Profiteers Entering 'Zone Of Stupidity'

CNN's Fareed Zakaria Global Public Square show seems like one of the only places in MSM that's informed enough to make any sense of the world when it comes to Sunday morning talk shows.. Today Zakaria tackled the growing saber rattling by Israel and its war with Iran surrogates in the US. Who now talk endlessly about something they call the "zone of immunity". Hey we been here before folks, but have we learned anything?

Chris Hedges Calls Out Black-Block - 'The Cancer In Occupy'

Chris Hedges steps forward with his post 'The Cancer In Occupy' which addresses such things as the use of a "diversity of tactics” and other Black Bloc violent justifying psycho-babble dogma.

These dogma spouting ne'er-do-wells actually threaten the beauty and hope of a continuing revolution. They alienate the masses, who actually support us, and turn them away. If the SPD is looking for who's breaking windows in Seattle area banks, this banal group of losers is probably a good place to start. 

"The Black Bloc anarchists, who have been active on the streets in Oakland and other cities, are a gift from heaven to the security and surveillance state."

The occupy revolution was always about economic justice, widespread political reform, ending war, getting the money out of politics, peaceful creative nonviolent demonstration, not cop hating and baiting, tents or property destruction. 

The black block provocateurs now threaten all the gains the occupy movement has made by becoming the vary thing that we are fighting against. Nothing pleases the 1% or the cops who represent them more. It only gives law enforcement justification to crack more heads and marginalize the vast majority of demonstrators who are nonviolence.  Start your own demented revolution some where far away from occupy please. Maybe you'll eventually realize it take more strength and intelligence to remain nonviolent then to playact the angry macho man.

Last Known WWI Vet Dies And Thanks Dad For Your Service

MacAllister H. O'Brien somewhere in France 1918

The last known World War I veteran, a British woman, passed away in her sleep on Saturday, she was 110 years of age. The last known American veteran passed away in May 2011. My dad was a WWI veteran who fought and was wounded while fighting in France in 1918, he was 18 years old at the time. Dad died in 1957.

Chris Hayes Proves Racist Republican Candidate Pete 'Spend It Not' Is A Dumb Shit

Chris Hayes wins for best analysis of the racist ad that Republican Senate candidate Pete Hoekstra ran in the Midwest during the Super Bowl. Beside pointing out the obvious 'why we should hate Asians' dog whistle blowing, Hayes also turns the table on the basic argument of the ad that tries to bring attention to the Democrat crime of excessive government spending.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Saul Alinsky American Patriot Friend Of The Worker

When I was a young labor union organizer I first learned about Saul Alinsky and his efforts to restore the dignity of working people.


Bill Moyers Essay: Newt's Obesession with Saul Alinsky from BillMoyers.com on Vimeo.

No War With Iran - America's Not Your War Bitch Israel

Aren't most fair minded people sick of the Jewish lobby saying jump and the right wing wackos and end-timers asking how high. I'm sick of war profiteering and war-mongering by the corporate elites and their political yes men.   I'm sick of Zionist expansionism and suppression of the Palestinian people and their right to have their own independent state. This latest war threat from Israel against Iran should be a wake-up call for Americans. Blind allegiance to Israel and Jews can do no wrong diplomacy has created a monster state that is killing innocent people. America is not your war bitch Israel!

British Tourists Tweet Causes Homeland Security Freak-Out

British Tourists Barred From Entering U.S. Over Tweet About ‘Destroying America’. Except 'destroying" is British slang for 'having a good time'. Don't know what's worse the way that homeland security acted or the fact that they're capable of monitoring your tweets and then tracking your movements.
 

Fly My Arrogant Jingoistic Ass To The Moon

 

How fucking jingoistic-ly arrogant is it of Newt Gingrich to say he wants to turn the moon into the 51st US state? No wonder the rest of the world thinks we've lost our minds. Maybe he should check out the legality of that first.  Here's the international treaty language on the uses of outer space: 

"Outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, are not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means."

Everything You Need To Know About The Mortgage Fraud Task-Force And Why It May Be Design To Fail

David Dayen of firedoglake and Sam Seder discuss President Obama's State of the Union Address, the overall problem with underwater and foreclosed properties and whether New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman will sell out on mortgage fraud.

An Open Letter To Occupy Seattle - This Is How It's Done!

Dearest Occupy Seattle.

“We do have a grand strategy, Nonviolent movements shift power by attacking the columns that hold the power structure in place. Those columns are the military, police, media, business, workers, youth, faith groups, NGOs and civil servants. Every time we deal with the police, we have that in mind. The goal is not to hit them, hit them, hit them and weaken them. The goal is to pull people from those columns to our side. We want the police to know that we understand they’re not the 1 percent. The goal is not to get every police officer, but to get enough police so that you have a division.” Kevin Zeese, Occupy Wall Street Protester

It's time to move from a cop hating anarchist dogma centered occupation to what the actual occupy wall street movement was really about, i.e., love, compassion, understanding, a new way of thinking, ending war, empathy, protecting the environment, truth, economic justice, election reform, HOPE.

Broaden your freaking creative thinking horizons for god's sake.

Love,

The sympathetic middle class

Keystone Job Numbers BS - Only Number That Counts 240 House Members 42 Million From Big Oil

The jobs creation numbers are bullshit. The only numbers that count are the head count of the oil industry's bought and sold politicians in the House of Representatives.

Obama's Real Nightmare - The Chinese Speaking Mormon Guy

Pretend your a independent voter for a second. If this guy got the Republican nomination Obama would have a real fight on his hands. I don't see the President having a problem with Mitt or the rest of the field of right-wing wankers. Lucky for Obama Huntsman is far too smart and reasonable for the wing-nut GOP electorate too. He's sort of reminds me of the old school Republicans I remember from my youth.

But one must remind oneself he is also a conservative on many important issues including health-care,  which he wants to make a State issue. He talks about repealing Dodd-Frank but also talks about getting rid of "to big to fail" banks. He also would withdraw troops from Afghanistan apparently, and seems very secular on many family value and social issues, choosing to be a Libertarian-lite version of Ron Paul on what's going on in your underpants or in your bedroom.

Underwater Mortgages 'Like Katrina Without The Water' But There's A 'Win-Win" Solution

The National People Action coalition with help from locally based groups we love like the Backbone Campaign  have proposes an unique "win win" solution to the underwater mortgages crisis that would allow people to remain in their homes and at the same time actually stimulate economic recovery and create up to 1 million jobs across the country annually. But it would requrie the Obama administration to take on Wall Street and the banks. It's the bailout of the middle class that should of happened already. 

Occupy Wall Street Geeks Building Facebook For 99%

“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

 More on the story here from Wired Magazine.
 

Occupy Christianity

"Blase Bonpane, Director of the Office of the America & Retired Episcopal Bishop George Packard join Thom Hartmann. Since the Occupy Wall Street movement started more than 3 months again - it's taken on many forms. From physical occupations in cities across America - to occupying individual homes to help struggling homeowners avoid foreclosure - to occupying corporate media headquarters - to occupying the Iowa Caucuses - to occupying Christmas. The movement has so many different dimensions today. And now - there could be a bond developing between the Occupy Movement and Christianity. So what does that look like? Just what does Occupy Wall Street and Christianity have in common?"

RAP NEWS X - #Occupy2012 Yeah Baby!

The news broadcast that America needs from RapNews.

Occupy Wall Street Three Months In Shows Remarkable Progress And Change In National Dialog

From RT America:

The Case and Defense On Behalf Of Bradley Manning

A must watch video: In defense of Bradley Manning featuring civil rights attorney and writer Chase Madar who outlines the case against--and the defense on behalf of Manning charged with supplying hundreds of thousands of classified government documents to WikiLeaks, as well as the now infamous "Collateral Murder" video.

The truth is that the real terrorists are the administrations, politicians of both American political parties and war profiteering corporations who lead the US into wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in the first place.

The Mortgage Foreclosures BS Argument About Moral Hazard

Banks often use the "moral hazard" argument to defend not restructuring bad loans facing foreclosure. These are the same banks of course that ran the economy into a ditch in 2008 because they ignored their own moral hazard when they turned the banking industry into a giant ponzi scheme in the name of the quest for obscene profits.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Occupy Wall Street Geeks Continue Work To Build Independent Internet Networks

As SOPA works it way through the Congress the need for more independent, secure and unfettered wireless networks is obvious to protesters and anyone else with half a brain. Given the role the internet plays in organizing protest here and around the world, it's obvious that any restrictions on internet access serve as a direct attack on individual freedom of association and speech. The modern internet in effect has become the public square that needs to be occupied.

One of the projects that sprung up at Zuccotti Park in New York was the Free Network Foundation. Basically they're a group of Occupy Wall Street geeky protesters who built an independent network within the park that provided secure internet access to the protesters camp there. Based on the success of that project the goal now is to create global independent networks everywhere. 

"We are the Free Network Foundation - builders and advocates of distributed and decentralized communication systems. We believe that the Internet should be used to connect people, not to spy on them, oppress them, or turn a profit. We envision technologies that will transform the network into something owned and operated by humanity itself, rather than by governments or profit-driven corporations."

Go Frack Yourself

Oil and gas companies continue to put profits over protecting the environment and the truth about the real dangers of gas hydro-fracking. 

NYPD and NYC Break Occupy Wall Street Kid's Hearts

A child will lead them....

A Message From The Department Of Normal

Lying War Profiteers Don't Create As Many Jobs As They Claim

Military spending doesn't create jobs, it costs them. Full story via Nation of Change.

Economist Richard Wolff Talks About European Debt And Occupy Wall Street

 Bailout palooza.

American Police State

Poster by Danny O'Brien

Economist Group Supports Occupy Wall Street Message

A group of economists who want to change the conversation about the current crisis have joined together to show support for the Occupy Wall Street movement.


Occupy Economics from Softbox on Vimeo.

Occupy The Highway March From NYC To Washington DC

An Explanation For Occupy Seattle Inconvenienced Grumpy University Bridge Commuters

                                                   Photo: DEAN RUTZ / THE SEATTLE TIMES

The University Bridge is a gear of the machine that we put our bodies on yesterday. That would be me on the bridge in the yellow poncho in the photo above.

Occupy Seattle and the King County Labor Council's joint protest rally and march yesterday resulted in the direct action of blocking the University Bridge for several hours during rush hour. One of the purposes of the protest was to bring attention to the fact that jobs could be created if government would just approve a plan to repair crumbling infrastructure, like the University Bridge.

If you read any of comment sections of local news reports about the protest and University Bridge blockade you'd find lots of bitching from individual commuters that took this tone, "Who do these people think they are?" Or, "can't you see I'm not getting my needs met here because of the inconvenience of having to be detoured around the protest."

Please excuse us for inconvenience.

But there comes a time when just robo-voting for ineffective and corporate controlled politicians just won't do anymore. As citizens we feel that something dramatic has to take place to shake you from your sleep and day to day routine. When it's all over I'm sure you'll thank us for putting our "bodies on the gears, and the wheels, upon the levers" of the machine, as Mario Savio pointed out in his now famous 1964 speech about free speech and the right to assemble, which is the subject of the two videos below.

The protesters believe that the time has passed for us to continue to rely on the normal channels to bring about the change we feel is needed. The nation is at a crossroads. The destruction of our country's political institutions through corporate corruption, greed and incompetence must be stopped. Or there may not be a commute for you to get stuck in at all.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Occupy Wall Street Live Streaming From #N17 Protest In New York

Live feed of Occupy Wall Street November 17th via WeAreTheOther99 Live

#OccupyWallStreet Calls For Nonviolent Solidarity On November 17th

Join Occupy Seattle's rally and march tomorrow at SCCC 2pm (see below) or Our Bridges Need Work - So Do We rally and march organized by the ML King County Labor Council. Looks like Occupy Seattle's rally and march will meet up with the Labor Council march at the Montlake Bridge  (Montlake Blvd NE & NE Pacific St.) around 4pm.

Oil And Gas Industries Should Take A Flying FRACK At A Rolling Donut

The truth about fracking from All Frack Up versus what the oil and gas companies would like you to believe. 
 

I want to upchuck every time I see one of these oil and gas industry commercials on TV pushing their homey bullshit version of the environmental impacts and need for fracking. 

 

 

'Occupy' Crackdowns Coordinated With Federal Law Enforcement Officials - What Does Obama Know And When Did He Know It?

To think I spent and entire year and a half of my life walking across the back-roads of several states in 2007 and 2008 to get Obama elected only to have his administration play a part in stomping on a citizen's right of assembly and free speech sickens me. News reports that the attacks and evictions of Occupy Wall Street encampments across the country by para-military police have been coordinated by the FBI and justice department is one big deal breaker.

So, the question is Mr. President what do you know about this and when did you know it?  Did you approve these coordinated attacks by the Justice Department, FBI and the Homeland Security apparatus on post 9/11 Patriot Act steroids that are in effect a direct attack on citizen's constitutional right of free speech and assembly?  If so, you can kiss my support goodbye.

Eviction of Occupy Wall Street From Liberty Plaza In Perspective

Excellent report by Real News on what effect the eviction of protesters from Liberty Plaza in New York could mean to the overall occupy movement.

Alexa O'Brien Founder Of US Day Of Rage Talks About NYPD Raid Of Occupy Wall Street

Alexa O'Brien of US Day Of Rage, one of the founding organizations of the Occupy Wall Street movement, is interviewed on Russia Today about raid of  Zuccotti Park in New York and the future of the movement. 

Aljezeera First MSM To Report On Raid On Occupy Wall Street NYC

American corporate media to busy talking about pedophile, Britney Spears not wearing panties.

A Day Of Imfamy For Occupy Wall Street

NYC Raid Comes 2 Days Before Planned '#N17' National Day Of Action Against 1%

"The timing of this late-night raid on Zuccotti Park may seem suspicious to many in the Occupy Wall Street movement. They were planning to hold a series of actions on Thursday, the two-month anniversary of Occupy Wall Street, including an attempt to close off bankers' access to Wall Street:"On the morning of November 17, we will shut down Wall Street. We will ring the People’s Bell, and initiate a street carnival in which we rebuild and celebrate the neighborhoods that the Wall Street economy has destroyed. Unions were also supposed to get in on the action, with a large rally planned for Foley Square. If those #N17 events go forward, they will certainly take on a different tone after tonight's eviction." -- Matt Sledge

Via: Huffington Post

Right Wing Christians Mobilize Prayer Teams to Pray Away Occupy Wall Street

Maybe they should pray for Jerry Sandusky instead.

I'm Not A Pacifist, I'm A Pragmatist - The Occupy Movement Must Adhere To Nonviolence At All Costs

"Non-violence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages." Thomas Edison 

It’s human nature for those who are suppressed to look at those who suppress them in a rather self-centered and myopic way. In doing so we become prone to adopt the same justification for violence that we claim defines our suppressors. We must practice higher ethics and awareness of the common good, which, if one considers it closely, rejects the tactics of and use of violence.

You only become like your enemy when you accept the idea that violence is somehow justified as part and parcel of civil disobedience. “In some cases non-violence requires more militancy than violence”, Cesar Chavez said. You also lose in the court of public opinion when you use violence in response to violence. The average American will sympathize with protest if they believe the protesters cause is just and the protester acts in a dignified way in making their point. One of the most powerful statements one can make is to demonstrate compassion and empathy for those who mean you harm.

I'm not a pacifist, I'm a pragmatist. 

Pictures of Martin Luther King or Cesar Chavez and countless others being arrested or enduring brutality yet accepting such treatment stand as timeless examples of how one should act when confronted with force. Their non-combativeness and silence demonstrates their righteousness and speaks volumes about their ideals and ethics. These images have endured because they appeal to the highest ideals of humanity. It appeals to a wider audience of people who maybe sympathetic to the cause and who also desire justice and true democracy.

On the other hand, anonymous Blackblock window breakers who cover their faces and run wild in the street attempting to spread fear with their ideological based brand of unfocused and pointless violence and property destruction are the antithesis of the nonviolent civilized citizen patriots who are exercising their constitutional rights of speech and assembly in the public square. In effect one act of violence by these individuals has the effect of reversing months of hard earned public support and sympathy for the movement.  

If it is really true that “the whole world is watching”, then one must demonstrate discipline in the face of police overreaction. Any thinking demonstrator realizes that being arrested or even brutalized by the authorities is part and parcel of a movement that challenges the power and authority of the entrenched oligarchy and the paramilitary police that protect them. It’s naive to believe you will not be arrested or brutalized by the police state when you question their authority. It you believe reacting violently in the face of this predictable response from the police is acceptable you only lower yourself to the level of those who feel justified in dishing-out such brutality.

In this country and around the world the battle the Occupy Wall Street movement is trying to win is not only in the streets but is also simultaneously taking place in the court of public opinion. As supporters and demonstrators who are involved in the movement we are called upon to demonstrate a higher standard of conduct and responsibility than what maybe required as an individual citizen. What you do and how you act from moment to moment speaks for the entire movement. Remind yourself that the occupy movement is not about you or even your inner-circle of misfits. We are not here to simply stir up trouble or create chaos. We are trying to change the world.

The goals of the movement must transcend our personal selfishness, ideology and politics. We are fighting for the 99% and in the broader sense humanity itself. At the root of this movement is the ideal of nonviolence and the power, eventual effectiveness and success of this movement will be compromised the moment we believe, based on superficial reasoning, that violence is somehow justified to achieve the change we desperately need.

Great Moments In Occupy Wall Street History

Occupy Comics Kickstarter Campaign Will Raise Funds for Protesters

“Adbusters created a really powerful image of a ballerina atop the Wall Street bull with protesters in the background, and that was enough to set this off”. Then Anonymous brought in the Guy Fawkes masks, and U.S. Day of Rage created more art challenging the relationship between Wall Street and Washington. So this is an art-inspired movement, and that’s part of what makes it so viral. It’s not intellectual, it doesn’t need a manifesto. People are banding together around an idea, rather than an ideology.”

"That’s the goal of the Occupy Comics Kickstarter project, launched Wednesday by transmedia studio Halo-8 and explained in the video pitch below. The plan is to graphically document the Occupy movement with the help of a roster of respected comics creators and artists, then funnel the proceeds directly to the protesters taking hits and making history for the 99 percent."

“Comics is at the root of this thing,” Halo-8 founder and Occupy Comics organizer Matt Pizzolo said in an e-mail to Wired.com. “Just look at Alan Moore and David Lloyd’s V for Vendetta masks at every protest. A Guy Fawkes mask is now a more iconic image of street protest than a gas mask.”

Graphic: Faceoff #OccupyWallStreet Vs The Tea Party

 Like we really care. But interesting never the less.

++ Click to Enlarge Image ++

Image Source: Accelerated Degree Programs

               

Robert Crumb Lives Finds Inspiration In #OccupyWallStreet Movement

From somewhere in France reclusive Robert Crumb, the iconic cartoonist and artist, granted an interview to Mother Jones.

Among other things Crumb talked about his famous album covers and offered his thoughts on the Occupy Wall Street movement.

MJ: I read on your website that one reason for going to France was that you had become disgusted with America. What do you mean by that?

RC: Well, the corporatization of culture. We lived in inland California, the Central Valley, and we witnessed over a period of 20 years of this invasion of shopping malls and corporate businesses and everything, and it lost all of its old character. Any kind of authentic character that it had was rapidly getting lost. The expanding urban development was just horrible to behold.

MJ: Have you been following Occupy Wall Street at all?

RC: Oh yeah, it’s great stuff. I think they should stay there, and persist and persist until they have some effect. I don’t know what effect they can have. I was thinking about it last night, I was laying in bed, thinking, “Can this thing have any effect on the wealthy establishment?” They’re so entrenched, they’re so powerful. I don’t know if they even care that people go there and demonstrate. What will it take, an armed revolution? That’s violent, and I’m kind of against violence. Violence begets violence, and then you get leaders who are violent men. And you don’t want that. You don’t want some Stalin in there as your left-wing leader. But it’s a great thing to see. I kinda thought that the American youth were very complacent and indifferent about all that, or just didn’t know what to do. But somebody got this thing going.

Via: Mother Jones

F*#k You Mr Potter We're Moving Our Money To The Building And Loan

Occupy an account at your local non-profit credit union. Move your money day November 5th.

What Happened Last Night At #OccupyOakland

With Thom Hartmann and Joshua Holland.