Berkely Man Dies Because Police On Standby For Possible Occupy Protests And Refuse To Respond To His Calls For Help

Lest anyone think that the Occupy movement has gone silent, this tidbit should be of interest.

A Berkeley, California, man is dead and some residents say it's because police were focused on an Occupy march. Peter Cukor made a non-emergency call to police last Saturday night to report a suspicious man hanging around his home. He was told police were only responding to emergency calls because the department's officers were on standby to monitor an Occupy Oakland march to the UC Berkeley campus. Cukor walked to a nearby fire station for help and was beaten to death as he returned home. The suspect in custody Daniel DeWitt has a history of mental illness. An Occupy Oakland representative says people should be furious over Cukor's killing. He said Berkeley police officials made monitoring a non-violent march a higher priority than responding to what turned into a deadly crime.

(Copyright 2012 by VERTEXNews/Newsroom Solutions)

So, the police department in Berkeley is more concerned about what may happen with respect to a bunch of protestors, and are too busy concentrating on what may happen, to actually be effective and do their job when someone reports a suspicious person trying to get into your home.

Need I point out that police, who have unions, are part of the Republican strategy of eliminating collective bargaining, which is but one of the things the Occupy movement is concerned with. Although many police unions have been given the opportunity to be "exempt" from the right to work laws enacted as of recent in many states, and the stripping down of the collective bargaining powers of government employees, it is still distasteful to me that the police side on the part of protecting the 1% when, in fact, the police are part of the 99% across the board.

From Smirking Chimp - "Class Warfare: Which Side Are You On?"

Interesting piece. Read it in its entirety. (H/T to Mikes Blog Roundup at C&L).

This struck out most, to me. I, too, have not seen any growth in my pay since 1980. I am STILL making the same amount of money per month that I made in 1980 -- no more, no less. I've struggled for 30 years raising my daughter and my grandson, and now that both are gone (she on her own, grandson stuck in a custody battle, but living right now in Chicago so I don't see him, am not allowed to talk to him, and I come to find out, the father fails to allow my grandson to even get the mail and cards I send to him), I am not as burdened by bills as I was during those 30 years. I live alone, sold my cars so that's a huge expense I do not have to endure (payments, insurance, gas, parking, tickets, etc.), and I just pay rent, (utilities included), my cable, internet and Vonage and cell phone bills. That's it, except my doctor I see every five weeks who only charges me $40 bucks, plus gives me my blood pressure medicine for free, and I pay $25 for my anxiety medicine, Valium. On that, I have been able to actually be free of financial worry on a day to day basis, but I have nothing to look forward as to future revenues (I will not be able to collect social security for various reasons, so I will have to work until the day I drop, unless my daughter eventually gets some kind of job after college that can help me in the future). Truly, if I lost my job, or my office closed up, I would be homeless in less than a year, unless I could still parlay my knowledge of the field of law and be taken in by one of the many lawyers I have befriended over the past 30 years and get some work despite my age (I turn 60 this year).

Perhaps working Americans do not understand how grave the situation is. A recent Mother Jones article graphically illustrated the problem: in the last 30 years the income of the one-percent has quadrupled and everyone else has experienced no growth. The Washington Post noted that in 2008, the average family income for the bottom 90 percent was $31,244 and that was a 1 percent decline from 1970. During the same period, the top .1 percent saw their income increase by 385% to $5.6 million. (The wealth divide is even more extreme; while the top 1 percent earn 21 percent of the nation's income, they now control 36 percent of our wealth.)

I am disheartened by the way our country is being run. I am sick and tired of the lying by everyone, democrats, republicans, teachers, lawyers, clients, ordinary people, newscasters, journalists, other governments. Lying is the new norm and for the life of me, I just do not understand how this bullshit crept up on us so that this country (and the world) is divided by the haves and the have nothings -- and there is very little outrage. Even the most have nothings that are on the right winger side, believe in and support things that simply hurt them even more. We've become a stupid world, and even those haves are not exactly smart -- just rich, and they use their riches to buy governments.

We are doomed as a world, and I wonder if I will be around long enough to see anything change.

“Who gives a crap about some imbecile?" Home Depot Founder's Comment On The Occupy Movement

Some of the 1%'s opinion of the Occupy movement:

– HOME DEPOT CO-FOUNDER BERNIE MARCUS: “Who gives a crap about some imbecile? Are you kidding me?”

– HOME DEPOT CO-FOUNDER KEN LANGONE: “I am a fat cat, I’m not ashamed…If you mean by fat cat that I’ve succeeded, yeah, then I’m a fat cat. I stand guilty of being a fat cat.”

– FORMER BB&T BANK CEO JOHN ALLISON: “Instead of an attack on the 1 percent, let’s call it an attack on the very productive. This attack is destructive.”

– PAYCHECX INC. FOUNDER TOM GOLISANO: “If I hear a politician use the term ‘paying your fair share’ one more time, I’m going to vomit.“

Courtesy of Think Progress. It's a good thing I don't do my own home repairs. I already won't patronize Lowe's and now I have a reason not to patronize Home Depot.

Facing Life In Jail For Protesting OC Your City

The threat of life imprisonment looms for Occupy Oakland activist Marcel Johnson - better known by his alias, Khali - after a third-strike arrest during the demonstration.

Read the rest. It's like the guy in Cali that was facing his third strike for stealing a slice of pizza. The third strike felony law was supposed to be for those that are a danger to society and commit a third DANGEROUS felony, like armed robbery, murder, etc. Not for some misdemeanor like protesting or stealing a slice of pizza.

Don't blink. If you do, you might not realize you are still living in the United States and not some third world dictatorship. Oh, my bad, we are living in a third world dictatorship!

H/T to Crooks and Liars.

A Message To John Aravosis, You Suck

You know what John, you are sometimes really an ass when you pontificate your preferred opinion on your blog. I know it's your blog, so it's your platform, but just because some Occupy the port information didn't pan out to be true, doesn't mean you are the god of all that is left wing liberalism internalized.

The Occupy Seattle team is claiming that the union employees at the port didn't lose their pay. In fact, according to the Stranger, they did.

[snip]

Some folks got upset when I wrote yesterday that this port action was giving me pause. It seems I had a point. Fancy that.

Yeah, fancy your ass, that. Let me give you a lollipop to shove up your ass. You missed the total point of that port shutdown, and you continually (lately) miss the total point of the Occupy movement. Perhaps you should just concentrate on your little pictures of your dog, and the like.

You are becoming quite a disappointment to me and many of my ilk.

Why The Occupy Movement Matters Re Port Stoppage

I didn't go to work yesterday, and I meant to post, but it was seriously very cold here, and I finally had to turn the heater on because my toes were frozen, my legs frozen, and my fingers frozen!

With all the brouha concerning the Occupy The Ports yesterday, I wanted to put up this link and part of this post from America's Port Drivers regarding their opinion about the occupation of the ports.

We are the front-line workers who haul container rigs full of imported and exported goods to and from the docks and warehouses every day.

We have been elected by committees of our co-workers at the Ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach, Oakland, Seattle, Tacoma, New York and New Jersey to tell our collective story. We have accepted the honor to speak up for our brothers and sisters about our working conditions despite the risk of retaliation we face. One of us is a mother, the rest of us fathers. Between the five of us we have 11children and one more baby on the way. We have a combined 46 years of experience driving cargo from our shores for America’s stores.

We are inspired that a non-violent democratic movement that insists on basic economic fairness is capturing the hearts and minds of so many working people. Thank you “99 Percenters” for hearing our call for justice. We are humbled and overwhelmed by recent attention. Normally we are invisible.

You MUST read the rest of this post. It is positively riveting in the description of the despicable conditions that are part of the "drivers" that haul the goods from the ports. Yes, many of the "drivers" complained that they were losing a days wages from the stoppage, but most of them were not telling the public that their lost wages were not from any corporation or job that employed them, because most of them are considered "independent contractors" and by that definition, get 1099's instead of W-2s, and they, therefore, lack health care, and basic benefits they would have if they were actually "employed" by someone. So, yeah, the truckers lost a day's wages, but those wages emphasized the exact point of the protest ... hitting the corporations where they hurt most, their bottom line. If the truckers don't move the goods, then they are not delivered timely to their destination, and their destinations are the big corporate owners, such as Wal-Mart, Target, etc.

Don't be fooled by reading just the headlines. Get to the bottom of the 99%/Occupy movement, and get engaged and enlightened ... and help.

Large Corporate Taxes Paid Vs. Lobby Expenses!

Interesting post over at Think Progress regarding the top corporations taxes paid compared to what they paid for lobbying of Congress.

(shaking head) And you have to constantly ask me the stupid question of why the Occupy movement exists?

So, Is A Tent An Outfit? Can Police Disrobe You If You Are Wearing A Tent?

This may not rank among the most despicable conduct of police against the Occupy movement, but still ... cutting off the woman's clothes because she was wearing an improvised "tent?" Where in the stupid people's mind is that really a reasonable act?

More Occupy Stuff

These newly elected Republican governors are seriously disturbed people. Now Scott Walker, not content with his attempts to dismantle the public sector as we know it, and already having seen some of his fellow Republicans recalled, AND being on the hot seat himself with his recall), has decided he's going to "bill" the Occupy movement for police services and other things. Isn't that just peachy!

Madison - Gov. Scott Walker's administration could hold demonstrators at the Capitol liable for the cost of extra police or cleanup and repairs after protests, under a new policy unveiled Thursday.

The rules, which several legal experts said raised serious free speech concerns, seemed likely to add to the controversy that has simmered all year over demonstrations in the state's seat of government.

The policy, which also requires permits for events at the statehouse and other state buildings, took effect Thursday and will be phased in by Dec. 16. Walker administration officials contend the policy simply clarifies existing rules.

State law already says public officials may issue permits for the use of state facilities, and applicants "shall be liable to the state . . . for any expense arising out of any such use and for such sum as the managing authority may charge for such use."

But Edward Fallone, an associate professor at Marquette University Law School, said the possibility of charging demonstrators for police costs might be problematic because some groups might not be able to afford to pay.

"I'm a little skeptical about charging people to express their First Amendment opinion," he said. "You can't really put a price tag on the First Amendment."

Although the state Department of General Services billed Occupy Nashville $1,045 to provide two troopers for security the night before they began arresting the protesters and clearing their encampment, if you read the full article it appears the Occupy Nashville group agreed to being charged for services provided by the city and the police (although it is unclear if they actually paid the bill). Of course, this is in the city where a judge has already ruled that the police have to stop arresting the protestors!

For those that have been constantly bombarded by the "media's meme" that they don't know what the Occupy movement wants, you can check their new declaration here.

We are assembled because…

• It is absurd that the 1 percent has taken 40 percent of the nation’s wealth through exploiting labor, outsourcing jobs, and manipulating the tax code to their benefit through special capital tax rates and loopholes. The system is rigged in their favor, yet they cry foul when anyone even dares to question their relentless class warfare.
• Candidates in our electoral system require huge sums of money to be competitive. These contributions from multi-national corporations and wealthy individuals destroy responsive representative governance. A system of backroom deals, kickbacks, bribes, and dirty politics overrides the will of the people. The rotation of decision makers between the public and private sectors cultivates a network of public officials, lobbyists, and executives whose aligned interests do not serve the American people.
• The entrenched two-party system overlooks public interests by pursuing narrow political goals. This climate encourages candidates to polarize voters for individual power and personal gain. Citizens’ meaningful input has been compromised by gerrymandering, voter disenfranchisement, and unresponsive politicians. Residents of Washington, D.C., continue to lack autonomy and legislative representation.
• The 1 percent benefits from economic, political, and legal structures that oppress communities long targeted by displacement, denial of sovereignty, slavery, and other injustices. These persecuted but resilient communities continue to suffer through generations of disproportionately higher rates of unemployment, poverty, criminalization, and homelessness. Facets of the 1 percent campaign to blame these groups for these problems while obstructing healing and restoration.
• Those with power have divided us from working in solidarity by perpetuating historical prejudices and discrimination based on perceived race, religion, immigrant or indigenous status, income, age, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, and disability, among other things. These divisions have inhibited our ability to work in solidarity, though today we recognize the power of uniting as the 99 percent.
• Financial institutions gambled with our savings, homes, and economy. They collapsed the financial system and needed the public to bail them out of their failures yet deny any responsibility and continue to fight oversight. Corporations loot from those whose labor creates society’s prosperity, while the government allows them to privatize profits and socialize risk.
• Corporate interests threaten life on Earth by extracting and burning fossil fuels and resisting the necessary transition to renewable energy. Their drilling, mining, clear-cutting, overfishing, and factory farming destroys the land, jeopardizes our food and water, and poisons the soil with near impunity. They privilege polluters over people by subsidizing fossil fuels, blocking investments in clean energy and efficient transportation, and hiding environmental destruction from public oversight.
• Private corporations, with the government’s support, use common resources and infrastructure for short-term personal profit, while stifling efforts to invest in public goods.
• The U.S. government engages in drawn-out, costly conflicts abroad. Numerous acts of conquest have been, and continue to be, pursued to control resources, overthrow foreign governments, and install subservient regimes. These wars destroy the lives of innocent civilians and American soldiers, many of whom suffer adverse effects throughout life. These operations are a blank check to divert money from domestic priorities.
• Government authorities cultivate a culture of fear to invade our privacy, limit assembly, restrict speech, and deny due process. They have failed in their duty to protect our rights. Exacerbated by profiteering interests, the criminal justice system has unfairly targeted underprivileged communities and outspoken groups for prosecution rather than protection.
• Corporatized culture warps our perception of reality. It cheapens and mocks the beauty of human thought and experience while promoting excessive materialism as the path to happiness. The corporate news media furthers the interests of the very wealthy, distorts and disregards the truth, and confines our imagination of what is possible for ourselves and society.
• Leaders are trading our access to basic needs in exchange for handouts to the ultra-wealthy. Our rights to healthcare, education, food, water, and housing are sacrificed to profit-driven market forces. They are attacking unemployment insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, creating an uncertain future for us all.*

Don't Mock, You Rock, Miley Cyrus

Just imagine how many young people this video reaches out to.

Shepard Fairey's New Hope Poster

Final version.


Original version before input.

For those not familiar with Mr. Fairey, he became associated with the famous 2008 Obama Hope poster.

Occupy LA Wins Concessions From City Council - Or Not?

UPDATE: 9/24/11

It appears that the Los Angeles City Council and Mayor Villaraigosa have gone back on their word to the Occuply LA group, and now plan to evict them within the next 72 hours.

Los Angeles officials want Occupy L.A. protesters to ditch their City Hall encampment by next week so the city can begin restoring the 1.7-acre park where the group has been living for nearly two months.

An aide to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa would not say what day the city plans to close the park — or exactly how much warning protesters will be given. But during a meeting Wednesday with several protesters, the aide, Deputy Chief of Staff Matt Szabo, said they would receive "ample notice."

[snip]

Officials earlier this week offered the protesters work space in a city building, along with a package of other incentives to encourage them to peacefully abandon their camp, according to [Jim] Lafferty. But he said city officials wavered on that offer Tuesday.

So, now what?

This from Crooks and Liars:

LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa ran virtually unopposed for his second term and still only got 55 percent of the vote. Between a sex scandal involving a member of the press - to wide reports of his all around hesitancy to do actual work - he's not well liked in Los Angeles. In fact, just the most basic tiny improvements to the city like planting a million trees or making a major thoroughfare a one-way during rush hour have failed during his tenure. Politically it's the end for Mayor V, he's not going to run for higher office. He's done.

So now as he's really accomplished little in his two terms to help a city whose unemployment is 12.2 percent - whose crumbling infrastructure is highlighted in car commercials as an obstacle course - Villaraigosa's next move is to give the boot to Occupy LA.

Yeah, as an aside, that "iconic" bridge that is featured in just about every car commercial made, is to be no longer. They are not even going to attempt to create a structure that resembles this bridge. It is simply going to be torn down and replaced with a 21st century designed bridge. Sad.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We don’t hear a whole lot about #OccupyLA because the City Council has been so cool about it. But now, after nearly two months of the City Hall lawn being used as a campground, the city leaders would like to politely move the protest off the grounds while also supporting its continued work.

The solution, which has yet to be accepted but which we think is genius for all involved, is to “rent” some downtown office space the city has (10,000 square feet) to #OccupyLA for a ceremonial $1 per year. (The huge commercial space is in something called the “Los Angeles Mall” literally next door to City Hall.) And all the homeless who have come to the camp recently? They will be provided with housing. Oh yeah, and farmland will be provided to the group, so that it can be self-sufficient as far as growing food.

With an office space connected to public transit and near to City Hall, the protest movement can become a full-time revolutionary council. It can advocate for the homeless, for the people facing eviction, for those being pushed out by property speculators, for the unemployed and underemployed, for the whole 99%. Actions can be arranged against the corporations, against the military, against all the evildoers.

Read the rest here. And for all you OTHER Occupy cities contemplating what to do, take note of how Los Angeles is treating this movement.

Poop Flinging Monkeys, Pepper Spray And Megyn Kelly

There has been a lot of dismissive talk on the television as of late regarding the "pepper spraying" incident at UC Davis. In fact, the cop has become a famous meme now!

A lot has taken off from the now infamous Megyn Kelly Fox News program statement that "pepper spray" is essentially a "food product."

However, this piece from Daily Kos caught my eye, with this funny analogy.

Fox's Megyn Kelly has been taking some heat (hi-yo!) for what looks like her dismissal of the seriousness of the UC Davis pepper spraying incident and other similar incidents around the country by asserting that pepper spray, "is a food product, essentially." And that's undoubtedly an idea that deserves to be slapped down, so it's no surprise that it has been, with actual science, no less.

The ridicule has been plentiful, of course. (Mustard gas is a condiment! Bullets are nutritional supplements!) But if you watch the entire video, Kelly actually comes off as being at least within spitting distance of reasonable. Though it should be said that a poop-flinging monkey could likely do the same if he was sitting opposite Bill O'Reilly, who goes out of his way to imply both that the pepper spraying is OK because UC Davis is a liberal campus, and that say that people "don't... have the right to Monday morning quarterback the police." [my emphasis]

Read the rest here.

Another Example Of The 1% Gig

When Pfizer cut its research budget this year and laid off 1,100 employees, it was not because the company needed to save money.

In fact, the drug maker had so much cash left over, it decided to buy back an additional $5 billion worth of stock on top of the $4 billion already earmarked for repurchases in 2011 and beyond.

The moves, announced on the same day, might seem at odds with each other, but they represent an increasingly common pattern among American corporations, which are sitting on record amounts of cash but insist that growth opportunities are hard to find.

[snip]

There has been a steady drumbeat of other companies laying off workers even as they have disclosed plans to buy back more stock. On June 23, Campbell Soup said it would buy back $1 billion in stock; five days later it announced plans to eliminate 770 jobs. Hewlett-Packard announced a $10 billion stock repurchase in July, and jettisoned 500 jobs in September after it discontinued its TouchPad and smartphone product lines.

Read more here. So, if you are wondering why the Occupy movement is so concentrated on the 1%, stories like this should jog your brain a bit. It also helps identify certain products not to buy anymore, like Campbell's soup! Spending one billion dollars in stock buy backs for its shareholders and officers, at the expense of 770 real people who no longer have a job with that company, now there's a grand American gesture, and a lesson in how the rich stay rich.

And, in another bit of irony, the law firm that became famous over Halloween for their office party (the firm specialized in foreclosures, and the theme of the office party was, well, being homeless after you lost your house in foreclosure) had to close their doors thanks to all the fun publicity!

A law firm that had become a lightning rod in the controversy over mortgage-foreclosure practices has shut down, costing 89 employees their jobs.

The Steven J. Baum P.C. law firm, which has offices in Amherst, N.Y., and Westbury, N.Y., has filed papers with government agencies notifying them that it plans to close. It made the filings under a federal law requiring employers to provide notice before mass layoffs.

[snip]

...the firm’s fortunes worsened this month after The New York Times published photos of a Halloween party at the Baum firm showing employees wearing costumes mocking people who had lost their homes.

After those photos surfaced, the mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae cut off the Baum firm, forbidding servicers of their mortgages from using Mr. Baum and his colleagues. That effectively served as the firm’s death knell.

For more pictures, see here.

And you wonder why the 99% are angry? You still think this class war thing is non-existent? What mentality has to prevail such that a firm that makes its living out of kicking people off their property, hosts a party whose theme is to mock the very people they've made homeless? Apparently, in an email to the guy at the NYT that broke the story, Mr. Baum himself had this to say:

“Mr. Nocera — You have destroyed everything and everyone related to Steven J. Baum PC,” said the letter. “It took 40 years to build this firm and three weeks to tear down.”

Bravo!

Police Brutality Toward The Occupy Movement Picks Up Speed On University Campuses

I've written a few posts here and here about OWS/Occupy Your City, police brutality and the reaction of the 1%.

Now that the movement has taken hold on university campuses, campus police are at the forefront of the "beat the shit out of the protesters," bringing to mind the police and college police actions toward protestors of the Viet Nam war (my era).

When a 70 year old, former Poet Laureate (Robert Hass) and his wife get billy clubbed by the campus police at UC Berkeley's Occupy, especially since he was there just as an observer and not even a participant, you know the U.S. is seriously a police state, no better than Libya, Syria and others.

LIFE, I found myself thinking as a line of Alameda County deputy sheriffs in Darth Vader riot gear formed a cordon in front of me on a recent night on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley, is full of strange contingencies. The deputy sheriffs, all white men, except for one young woman, perhaps Filipino, who was trying to look severe but looked terrified, had black truncheons in their gloved hands that reporters later called batons and that were known, in the movies of my childhood, as billy clubs.

[snip]

Once the cordon formed, the deputy sheriffs pointed their truncheons toward the crowd. It looked like the oldest of military maneuvers, a phalanx out of the Trojan War, but with billy clubs instead of spears. The students were wearing scarves for the first time that year, their cheeks rosy with the first bite of real cold after the long Californian Indian summer. The billy clubs were about the size of a boy’s Little League baseball bat. My wife was speaking to the young deputies about the importance of nonviolence and explaining why they should be at home reading to their children, when one of the deputies reached out, shoved my wife in the chest and knocked her down.

[snip]

My wife bounced nimbly to her feet. I tripped and almost fell over her trying to help her up, and at that moment the deputies in the cordon surged forward and, using their clubs as battering rams, began to hammer at the bodies of the line of students. It was stunning to see. They swung hard into their chests and bellies. Particularly shocking to me — it must be a generational reaction — was that they assaulted both the young men and the young women with the same indiscriminate force. If the students turned away, they pounded their ribs. If they turned further away to escape, they hit them on their spines.

NONE of the police officers invited us to disperse or gave any warning. We couldn’t have dispersed if we’d wanted to because the crowd behind us was pushing forward to see what was going on. The descriptor for what I tried to do is “remonstrate.” I screamed at the deputy who had knocked down my wife, “You just knocked down my wife, for Christ’s sake!” A couple of students had pushed forward in the excitement and the deputies grabbed them, pulled them to the ground and cudgeled them, raising the clubs above their heads and swinging. The line surged. I got whacked hard in the ribs twice and once across the forearm. Some of the deputies used their truncheons as bars and seemed to be trying to use minimum force to get people to move. And then, suddenly, they stopped, on some signal, and reformed their line. Apparently a group of deputies had beaten their way to the Occupy tents and taken them down. They stood, again immobile, clubs held across their chests, eyes carefully meeting no one’s eyes, faces impassive. I imagined that their adrenaline was surging as much as mine.

I suggest reading the entire piece.

An ugly picture, to say the least:



This video is difficult to watch. It starts off with one officer full on spraying the handful of protestors just sitting and doing nothing. In the end of the video, the police finally leave, but not before they actually aim guns at the crowd, and one officer has two cans of pepper spray that he keeps shaking (I guess to get it up to snuff) as if he's going to simply spray it into the crowd (this is after they had already taken away the ten or so protesters that were originally sprayed). This is at UC Davis.



In New York, this is actually quite astonishing. Two churches have offered a place for the OWS group to stay and have shelter. Now, generally, churches are a sanctuary for just about anyone. But not in New York! Bloomberg and his goons keep sending in plain clothes police officers (which, by the way, have not fooled anyone, church personnel nor the protestors), but come on! Infiltrating churches now?

With Mayor Michael Bloomberg (I) ratcheting up police crackdowns on Occupy Wall Street this week, the New York Times reports that several churches in New York City are sheltering protesters who can no longer stay in Zucotti Park. About 46 protesters spent Wednesday night in the United Methodist Church of St. Paul and St. Andrew. However, instead of respecting the sanctuary, police in plainclothes are entering churches to monitor their conduct.

According to church officials, two police officers (one later identified as belonging to the intelligence division) asked to use the bathroom but instead “entered the sanctuary, one remaining near the door while the other advanced down the aisle, apparently counting the demonstrators in the pews.” Then, one officer went downstairs to a homeless women’s shelter and “asked for information about who was sleeping there” without identifying himself or showing his badge. The church’s Rev. James Karpen called the police actions “invasive.”

Read more at Think Progress.

Another from Think Progress, regarding police and their attempt to use undercover officers to infiltrate the Occupy movement, as if they will uncover come dirty secret, much like the right wingers and their news machines (yeah, FOX, I'm pointing my finger at you) that the Occupy movement is a liberal, Democratic organized movement, funded by, you guessed it, George Soros! Yeah, right. (shaking head)

Across the country, police have used undercover and/or plainsclothed police officers to monitor occupations and protests that are a part of the 99 Percent Movement. Earlier today, the Tennessean published excerpts from emails sent by the Tennessee Highway Patrol that confirmed not only that police were infiltrating Occupy Nashville but that they were hoping for the movement’s demise.

In a video released last month, Oakland Police Officer Fred Shavies was outed as one of these plainsclothed officers at Occupy Oakland.

SHAVIES: I’m a police officer. I’m part of the 99 percent. [...] In the ’60s when people would protest, would gather in order to bring about change, right? Those protests were nonviolent they were peaceful assemblies. They were broken up with dogs, hoses, sticks. [...] It looks like there was a square, and police shot tear gas. That could be the photograph or the video for our generation. That’s our Birmingham. So, twenty years from now this movement could be the turning point, the tipping point, right. It’s about time your generation stood up for something. It’s about time young people are in the streets. [...] Ya’ll don’t need to throw gas canisters into a group of people occupying an intersection.

At least one politician in Washington is paying attention:

“No matter how long protesters camp out across America, big banks will continue to pour money into shadow groups promoting candidates more likely to slash Medicaid for poor children than help families facing foreclosure,” said Deutch in a statement provided to ThinkProgress. “No matter how strongly Ohio families fight for basic fairness for workers, the Koch Brothers will continue to pour millions into campaigns aimed at protecting the wealthiest 1%. No matter how fed up seniors in South Florida are with an agenda that puts oil subsidies ahead of Social Security and Medicare, corporations will continue to fund massive publicity campaigns and malicious attack ads against the public interest. Americans of all stripes agree that for far too long, corporations have occupied Washington and drowned out the voices of the people. I introduced the OCCUPIED Amendment because the days of corporate control of our democracy. It is time to return the nation’s capital and our democracy to the people.”

Rep. Ted Deutch (D-FL), has introduced a bill (cute acronym) called Outlawing Corporate Cash Undermining The Public Interest in our Elections and Democracy (OCCUPIED). This is a push back against the Citizens United decision.

In a memo from a prominent corporate lobbying firm to the American Bankers Association, it appears Wall Street, and Republicans are now afraid that some Democrats might benefit from the Occupy movement.

The memo was authored by lobbyists at the firm Clark Lytle Geduldig Cranford — and there are two key takeaways. The first is that some allies of Wall Street firms see Occupy Wall Street as a potential long term political threat. The second is that they see the Democratic strategy of embracing the populist message of the protests as something that could work, rather than something that is an automatic negative for Dems, as conservatives keep proclaiming is the case.

Read more here.

As we head into the Thanksgiving Holidays, this is an interesting idea from Working America. It's a challenge to "talk turkey" about the Occupy movement.

What's your favorite part of the holidays? Big meals? Mashed potatoes and gravy? Cranberry sauce? Sleeping off your meal over the big football game? How about those never-ending discussions with your family about everything from Dancing with the Stars to Congress?

Well, this holiday season, Working America invites you to embrace that quality family time as an opportunity to help Uncle Dave and Aunt Maggie make sense of what it means to be a part of the 99 percent. We're calling it "Turkey Talk."

How can you take on the "Turkey Talk" Holiday Family Challenge to talk with friends and family in a way that draws out the real issues? Here are some basic strategies and advice, along with some substantive facts and answers that will clear up myths, confusion or spin coming from the 1 percent.

Let's Really Honor The Vets This Year - Donate

As we remember the fallen veterans that have served this country over the years, let us not forget what the Bush administration has done to our current set of vets coming back from "the war on terror."

The Dover Air Force Base mortuary for years disposed of portions of troops’ remains by cremating them and dumping the ashes in a Virginia landfill, a practice that officials have since abandoned in favor of burial at sea.

The mortuary in Delaware, the main point of entry for the nation’s war dead and the target of federal investigations of alleged mishandling of remains, engaged in the practice from 2003 to 2008, according to Air Force officials. The manner of disposal was not disclosed to relatives of fallen service members.

Courtesy of The Washington Post.

Thousands of veterans returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are finding a grim job market. Veterans who served since 9/11 experience a 12.1% unemployment rate, which is higher than the national average, while one in three male veterans are jobless.

Courtesy of Think Progress.

Let's keep Iraq war veteran Scott Olsen in our minds this day, as we begin to understand why the many veterans of Bush's "war on terror" support the Occupy movement.

"Enough Of This Bull" (shit)

And now for something more fun from OWS!

Obama Is Wall Street

For those that think we should just vote in Obama for a second term, and either hold our noses or point out the old cliche of "who else is there," one really needs to read this, and take it ALL IN CAREFULLY.

The largest banks are larger than they were when Obama took office and are nearing the level of profits they were making before the depths of the financial crisis in 2008, according to government data.

Wall Street firms — independent companies and the securities-trading arms of banks — are doing even better. They earned more in the first 2¹ / ₂ years of the Obama administration than they did during the eight years of the George W. Bush administration, industry data show.

Please continue your support for Occupy Wall Street.

For more in-depth coverage of this issue, read Think Progress' take here.

Tammy Baldwin, My New Hero

Finally, someone with "balls" ready to sock it to the banking industry that has fucked the 99%. H/T to AMERICAblog.

Baldwin's resolution states that any settlement should follow three guidelines: 1) Banks that engaged in fraudulent behavior "should not be granted criminal or civil immunity for potential wrongdoing related to illegal mortgage and foreclosure practices," 2) the federal government and state AGs should "proceed with full investigations into claims of fraudulent behavior by mortgage servicers" and 3) any monetary sum paid by the banks should "appropriately compensate for, and accurately reflect, the extent of harm to all victims."

"We have to do the best we can to make innocent victims whole. But secondly, especially in light of the taxpayer bailout of the biggest banks, we owe taxpayers a solemn effort to do everything we can do to uncover what went wrong and whether laws were broken," Baldwin said in an interview with The Huffington Post. "Part of that is to make certain this won't happen again. That, to me, is one of the most basic responsibilities we have."

And Now For Something Completely Different Re OWS

The video speaks for itself.