Observations from the Coffee Shop 2.25

I wasn't planning on writing anything more about last night's Academy Awards but I have to get something out of my system. Before I get to that I'll mention Anne Hathaway won as expected and looked adorable as always, I really don't care if most of twitter seems to hate her. I was a little disappointed there was no Scarlett Johansson sighting but I totally forgot about Cat On A Hot Tin Roof so that was understandable.

What I need to get out of my system started with a very late night tweet by The Onion concerning nine year old Quvenzhane Wallis who was nominated for Best Actress; "Everyone else seems afraid to say it, but that Quvenzhane Wallis is kind of a c***, right?" The tweet has since been deleted. Yes it was totally offensive, especially when directed at a nine year old girl, but come on it was The Onion. I'm sure whoever was tweeting for The Onion was drinking just as much as everybody else and, looking at my tweets from last night, tweeting and drinking is never a good idea. As I said the tweet has been deleted and hopefully they apologize to her in some way. Wallis is attacked with almost as much relish as Hathaway and I'm sure it was meant as sarcasm but sometimes sarcasm goes too far.

End of story right? This is America, of course that isn't the end of it. The rapidly becoming irrelevant Keith Olbermann jumped on the soapbox he hasn't been on since the Penn State scandal broke and demanded a full public apology which I'm sure wouldn't satisfy him anyway. It has also been said the tweet was only acceptable because Wallis is a "woman of color" even though nobody anywhere has remotely considered it acceptable at all. Others are demanding to know who wrote the offensive tweet and want him, personally I'm sure it was a him, fired and severely punished. Whether or not the writer is fired is up to how The Onion handles the fickle court of public opinion but otherwise punished? What happened to the supposedly liberal Hollywood's love of the freedom of speech? If somebody can be punished for writing something stupid or crude I'm totally screwed.

It was offensive and totally over the line but was it surprising at a all? Not really, not in the world we currently live in and what is considered normal conversation and I'm quite sure the person tweeting thought it was his edgiest ever. Not in a world where gays and women seem to be perfectly acceptable punchlines of stupid stereotypical humor. Maybe it was me but I don't ever remember watching a more white and male dominated Academy Awards show than the one last night. I shouldn't be surprised, current Oscar voters are 90% white, 77% male, and have an average age of 62. Change the age and I probably just described the writing staff at The Onion too.

I may be totally wrong about all of this. If I am feel free to tell me.

There is something to be remembered here, something we all should remember sometimes. As Yahoo Canada's Greg Hughes wrote; "The Onion made a pretty significant faux pas tonight on Quvenzhane Wallis. They deleted the tweet, but the Internet doesn't ever forget."

update - For what it's worth, since I posted this morning Steve Hannah, CEO of The Onion, apologized by way of its Facebook page. "On behalf of The Onion, I offer my personal apology to Quvenzhané Wallis and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the tweet that was circulated last night during the Oscars. It was crude and offensive." You can read the full letter here.

Observations from the Window 2.6

A couple days ago NBC released a Justice Department memo on drones, the government's way of saying yes we can kill you if you are an American citizen, happen to be overseas, and we even think you are a terrorist. That seems to be all any of the talking heads want to talk about now. That is unless you include The Washington Post who thought it fitting they publish an article about Michelle Obama's ass. Seriously.

One would think I would be all ready to rant about the drones, rights, and what you could probably call legal assassination but one would be wrong. Instead of writing this to vent I'm writing to try and rationalize why I don't feel that way. The only reason I can come up with is that for almost half my life this country has been in one form of war or another. For my generation the deaths of 3,000 people is the defining moment of our lives and for all practical purposes my sister's generation hasn't known anything but war. Maybe more important than that is we have lived with the Patriot Act the whole time. What gun control does to the second amendment pales when compared to what the Patriot Act did to the rest of the Constitution.

The notion that drone killing isn't who we are or what we do doesn't work the way it does with torture. The drone is a totally predictable evolution of the American way of war. Clinical, antiseptic, death from above delivered with nothing but a sound reminiscent of a snowmobile engine. Perfectly packaged for the evening news to show just before they report on how terrible the drone wars are.

So I just don't know why the whole thing doesn't bother me more. Am I just being cynical to the ninth degree? Is it the images of what I saw in the streets of New York ten years ago? Maybe it's the subtle feeling I sometimes get that, no matter how much I love it, technology will be the end of us all one day. I honestly have no idea so for now I guess you could say it bothers me that it doesn't bother me.

Time ran a very good cover story on drones that contains a very real warning. "The moral ambiguity of covert drone strikes will clarify itself very quickly if another country claims the right under international law to strike its enemies in the U.S. There may come a day when the U.S. bitterly regrets the precedents it has set." Just try and imagine the American reaction to a Chinese drone flying over San Francisco. It isn't all that far fetched because the Time article mentions a drone Grumman is developing that will stay in the air for weeks at a time.

A literary mind might feel the need to issue a more personal warning than Time by using a quote by George Orwell. But the book 1984 was written over sixty years ago, the year itself is almost thirty years ago, so people might only understand it in an quaint abstract sort of way. Something a little more timely is called for.

Skynet isn't as fictitious as it once was.

2/7 update - I did more thinking on this but I'm going to write an additional post rather than doubling the size of this one. I did want to that one of the major reasons this has even become an issue is John Brennan's confirmation hearing today in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee or, as I prefer to call it, the gang of cranky old men. Brennan, President Obama's counter-terrorism chief and the man who ran the drone wars, is nominated to be head of the CIA.

Something to think about this morning, Senate Intelligence Committee, that's a political oxymoron if there ever was one.

Observations from the Coffee Shop 1.15

This may be bad form, or maybe it's just perfect, but I'm going to update you a little on guns on Martin Luther King's birthday. Originally I was going to post this as my Sunday observations, I had some good links to go with it, but other things came up and now the guardians of the empire seem to have lost my links.

In typical Amerikan lunacy NRA memberships and gun sales have surged since the Newtown massacre, magazine and rifle orders have a backlog of almost a year, but this time around there's a new wrinkle. There now seems to be a national ammunition shortage so bad police departments across the country are cutting back on training. In some cities the shortage has gotten so bad the police have resorted to buying ammo at local gun shops. This means there is a good chance the NRA's vaunted good guys with guns wont be able to hit the bad guys with guns should they see them. You can bet the gun industry is enjoying their rising profits once again courtesy of the NRA and the nutjobs that worship it.

A seriously funny side story to this is that some gun and ammo buyers are complaining about price gouging. Seriously. On one website a buyer whined about paying $999 for a case (1,000 rounds) of ammo listed at $399 in the site's catalog. I'm not going to get into the reasons somebody might need 1,000 rounds of .233 (bushmaster caliber) ammo but somebody left a good quote as a comment to his tirade. "It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt," Abraham Lincoln.

For the record, as of today there have now been 936 gun related deaths in the U.S. since Newtown.

Observations on Amerika 11.13

Not long after President Obama's reelection the spirit of Jefferson Davis infected some people and they have filed petitions to secede from the union on the White House website. Now you can argue the merits of just letting Texas secede and be done with them but I have this fear of it becoming a narco-terrorist haven. A small country filled with religious zealots, a wacko leader in Rick Perry, and flooded with guns. What could possibly go wrong? Maybe we should just call it Texistan.

But this is the United States of America and if we can't have fun with secession who can? This is an official petition filed yesterday with the White House. I think it is courtesy of our friends at The Daily Kos but I'm not sure, maybe just its rogue editor David Waldman. It only has 25 signatures so far so please do your part to help this fledgling country.

WE PETITION THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION TO:
Peacefully grant the State of Herp-a-Derp to withdraw from the United States of America & create its own NEW government
As the founding fathers of the United States of America made clear in the Declaration of Independence in 1776:

"When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one neighbor to secretly let his dog crap on the lawn of another, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation." Therefore, herp-a-derp-derp, but please keep sending my Social Security check. I earned that, yo.

Created: Nov 12, 2012
SIGNATURES NEEDED BY DECEMBER 12, 2012
TO REACH GOAL OF 25,000: 24,975

11/14 update - Due to the seriousness of the secessionist cause I wanted to update this with some links. The first is a self-proclaimed epic rant by David Badash at The New Civil Rights Movement. Read his article and you will learn that wingnuts in 42 of the 50 states have started petitions to secede, "The Only States That Don’t Want To Secede Are The Ones With Gay Marriage."

On The Huffington Post I found something that's too funny. It seems somebody in Texas started a petition to have the city of Austin secede from Texas and remain part of the union. So far that petition has over 4,000 votes. But also in this article you will see that the Hardin County Republican Party Treasurer, Peter Morrison, called Obama backers maggots. That should give you a pretty good idea what kind of people these are.

From The New Republic comes the best of all, "Go Ahead and Secede, Texas. I Dare You," and the one you need to read if you read any of them. If you do read it you have to read it all from beginning to end. It gets a bit serious in the middle and you'll start to think that maybe Texas would be better off but the finish is totally awesome. I don't want to ruin it but I will finish with the final line from that column ....

"Don’t mess with us, Texas. You just might get what you want."

11/16 update - Sorry for this bit of sad news but the petition for the State of Herp-a-Derp to secede from the union was removed from the White House website because it violates the site's terms of service and is in fact fictional. Really? I never would have guessed. At this writing petitions to deport anybody who signs a petition to secede remain on the site. Probably just wishful thinking on everybody's part.

Observations from the Window 5.19

I don't know if I ever wrote about healthcare before, it's a sometimes touchy subject for me. My basic thought is that in a country supposedly as rich as this one nobody should be denied the best care for economic reasons. If we can afford the ability to kill in a historically unknown scale we should be able to take care of those in need. One shouldn't be forced to settle for lesser care because their insurance tier doesn't cover a treatment or drug. In 2009 a Harvard Medical School study said 45,000 deaths a year are directly related to lack of health insurance or approximately the same number as smoking kills. Think about that.

I bring up healthcare now because a good friend of the family recently became ill. She is far from poor but her story still tells something about healthcare in this country. I'll make it a brief story. Over a month ago she began having pain in her side and started weeks of seeing various doctors, receiving various diagnosis, and getting various treatments. The pain continued to worsen and finally her frustrated OBGYN scheduled her for an mri because our friend is highly allergic to the dye used in a ct scan. On the morning of the test she received a call from the doctor's nurse informing her that the hospital's radiologist had cancelled the test. He didn't know a thing about her or her case but cancelled it because, as health insurance raises its ugly head, there are procedures to follow and a ct scan must be performed before an mri. It didn't seem to matter that the test could worsen the problem.

Now totally exasperated and unable to eat much she went to the hospital's emergency room with a friend. At one point she was asked why she came to emergency with a stomach ache, had I been there this is the point in the story where a nurse gets slapped, but than I wasn't. After a day of tests it was discovered she had a growth in her abdomen and surgery is scheduled for this week. She has been in the hospital since than but the insurance company wont pay for her to remain there till the surgery. She has to go home, deal with life's other problems, and be re-admitted that morning.

A thought came to me yesterday, maybe I had seen it somewhere before, maybe not. If we have to live and die with health insurance companies why not just make them non-profits? Why should medical decisions be made based on the profit line? Why should a few individuals make millions running these companies when so many Americans go without healthcare?

In the end history may judge this rich nation on how it treated its poorest citizens when they needed it most.

Observations on Amerika 5.8

Today the state of North Carolina voted to amend the state constitution to ban same sex marriage. Actually they voted to define marriage as between a man and a woman, the politically correct way to say fuck you to the state's gays. The grand old state of North Carolina, the 12^th state to ratify the Constitution of the United States, allowed the people to speak.

But wait ....

North Carolina allowed just 19% of the voters to speak. A tiny fraction of registered voters in the state defined marriage for the rest of those who I suppose had better things to do. Wash the car, the dog, hell wash the wife if you are lucky enough to constitutionally have one.

The recent French Presidential election had a voter turnout of over 75% which is something this country will never see. It's much more fun and easy to bitch about what is wrong with the country than get off your lazy ass and vote. Seriously, you cant't blame me cause I didn't vote, not my fault. I wouldn't have voted that way but I just didn't have the time.

Your country is a mess and you have nobody to blame but yourself. All those people in Washington you blame for all your problems were actually elected. They were elected while you sat at home watching American Idol and VOTED for Scotty, whoever the hell he is. You can vote during a TV show but you can't bother to vote for something that actually means something, that effects the lives of your fellow citizens.

Tonight Amerika, because of the 19% in North Carolina, you suck.

You all suck.

Observations from Amerika 4.7

So you think you don't need to vote. It doesn't matter, it doesn't count. It's raining, snowing, cold, you don't have time, the voting location is out of my way, they all lie anyway. If that sounds like you watch this clip from Thursday's Rachel Maddow Show. Or, if it's too long for you, just read the transcript of the last few minutes that is just below it. After you do please, seriously please, leave me a comment explaining why you don't need to vote. I need to know.

I'll be drinking a beer while I wait for the Reichstag to burn. Google it.

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

"On Monday, a county judge issued a temporary injunction ordering Michigan House Republicans to follow the law, to follow the constitution, to let the minority vote even though the minority are Democrats. The court put on hold several bills that Republicans have passed using this kind of technique. Passed what appears to be illegally, including about that one about the grad students union.

Republicans are appealing the judge`s ruling. Their arguments boil down to, A, they say no court can interfere with the legislature, and, B, they say this is dog bites man. This is standard operating procedure. There`s nothing to see here. This is totally normal. Keep moving. This case has implications for what happens in Michigan over the next few months and to some extents what happens nationwide. Michigan Republicans are now considering a law that would make it much harder to register to vote in the state. If that passes, under immediate effect and goes into effect right then, that will become a factor in 2012 race in Michigan.

Also, Michigan voters voting on a bill that makes it harder to get a referendum on the ballot. That could affect the current drive to put the Rick Snyder emergency manager law up for appeal. Do you think Rick Snyder and his fellow Republicans would like repealing his law to be a harder thing to do? And does anybody else get a say in that? The 2010 elections ushered in a lot of radicalized Republican legislatures and governors across the country and have done a lot of radical things. Scott Walker is famous for a reason.

But what`s happened in Michigan is the most radical thing Republicans have done anywhere in the country. They have eliminated democracy. They have eliminated voting rights at the local level in their state. They have tried to eliminate Democrats` voting rights in the state legislature. Whether you`re on the left or you`re on the right or you`re in the center or if you don`t particularly care about politics, if all you care about is that we have a form of government in this country called democracy, we vote. If you care about the idea that we still use voting here, we still use democracy, if you care about the Constitution -- frankly ...

Michigan ought to have a flashing red light siren on it right now."

*link to video

Observations from the Coffee Shop

Today is the New Hampshire primary and it seems a perfect moment to drop some random bits of political information on you.

The Keystone XL pipeline is one of brother's favorite things to complain, vent, and curse about. It would carry oil and diluted oil sands from northern Canada to locations throughout the US, going as far as the Texas coast. Supporters claim it would create tens of thousands of jobs. Opponents counter that it would create less than one hundred permanent jobs, wreak havoc with the environment of the mid-west, and just further our dependence on fossil fuels. Two of the main people pushing for faster approval of the pipeline are Speaker of the House John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. For the record Boehner has received $1,111,080 from the petroleum industry during his time as Speaker, McConnell received $1,277,208. Take that for what you will.

Kansas' Republican Speaker of the House Mike O'Neal sent an email to friends and supporters when he 'discovered' Psalm 109. He wrote in the email, "At last, I can honestly voice a Biblical prayer for our president! Look it up, it is word for word! Let us all bow our heads and pray. Brothers and Sisters, can I get an amen?" And what is Psalm 109? Bible.org describes it as a prayer for the punishment of the wicked. "May his children be fatherless and his wife a widow. May his children be wandering beggars; may they be driven from their ruined homes. May a creditor seize all he has; may strangers plunder the fruits of his labor. May no one extend kindness to him or take pity on his fatherless children." I take that to mean that O'Neal wouldn't mind seeing the President dead and I really think the Secret Service needs to look into that the with same seriousness they would if a random drunk in a random bar threatened him.

This is a short one because I can't bare Rick Santorum being in my thoughts for any length of time. I saw him on Morning Joe this morning and he said a couple of things that make me think of the words revisionist history. He called a nuclear armed Iran the greatest threat western civilization has ever known. Greater than the Islamic expansions of the 8th century, the Mongol invasions of the 14th century, greater even than Nazi Germany or Soviet Russia. Seems like more of the GOP tactic of winning elections through fear, just another excuse for another war in the middle east. Santorum also stated that he felt the working families of Pennsylvania could relate to him and his family history, I would remind the former Senator that the families of Pennsylvania showed him the door after his 2006 election campaign.

And last something only marginally political but something that may become more important as we move into the new year. Vibe is a new application for iPhones, iPads and Android that allows the user to send messages that are only visible to other Vibe users, and not to police or other outsiders. Vibe messages are anonymous, and users can control how far they are broadcast, from 150 feet to worldwide. The user can also control how long the messages are visible, they disappear after a set time period ranging from 15 minutes to thirty days thus leaving no trail.

And so it goes.

Observations from Amerika 12.18

Some updates on my post of 12.2....

The National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 (NDAA) passed both the House and the Senate this week. Despite earlier promises to the veto the bill President Obama now says he will sign it yet outside certain sectors barely a whimper can be heard. It seems the American people don't know about or more likely simply don't care about the provisions that allow the military to detain US citizens without trial. My cynical side can almost hear them thinking “well as long as it doesn't happen to me.” Supporters of the bill say it no longer requires the military detention of suspected terrorists, but it does allow it. President Obama has said that if the provisions negatively impact the nation he and the authors will work to fix it, don't hold your breath on that one. So what we are left with is the Constitution of the United States turned on its head and the knowledge that everything Adolf Hitler initially did was perfectly legal.

Any vote on the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) has been pushed back but probably not for long. An 11 hour committee hearing stalled Thursday after Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) tweeted that Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) was “boring.” Any further discussion was put on hold until next week. Over fifty amendments have been added to the bill by opponents yet Congress still seems dead set on destroying the internet as we know it. One interesting provision would grant immunity to financial companies that choose to boycott suspected pirate sites even if they haven't been told to do so. You might ask why they are singled out but it seems obvious to me, always follow the money. The hacker group Anonymous announced the beginning of Operation Blackout, what it calls its declaration of war on Congress because of SOPA.

This could get very interesting.

Observations from the Edge 12.4

I just wanted to pass along a pair of things I think are worth reading. The first is an article from today's New York Times and but the second a report from the Cato Institute so it's a bit longer.

"Riot police officers tear-gassing protesters at the Occupy movement in Oakland. The surprising nighttime invasion of Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan, carried out with D-Day-like secrecy by officers deploying klieg lights and a military-style sound machine. And campus police officers in helmets and face shields dousing demonstrators at the University of California, Davis with pepper spray Is this the militarization of the American police?"

From "When the Police Go Military" an analysis by Al Baker of the New York Times and published in the December 4^th edition of the paper.

"Americans have long maintained that a man's home is his castle and that he has the right to defend it from unlawful intruders. Unfortunately, that right may be disappearing. Over the last 25 years, America has seen a disturbing militarization of its civilian law enforcement, along with a dramatic and unsettling rise in the use of paramilitary police units (most commonly called Special Weapons and Tactics, or SWAT) for routine police work. The most common use of SWAT teams today is to serve narcotics warrants, usually with forced, unannounced entry into the home."

From the summary of "Overkill: The Rise of Paramilitary Police Raids in America" by Radley Balko for the Cato Institute and also quoted in the Times column. This report is rather long but a pdf file can be downloaded free of charge. 

Observations from Amerika 12.2

It should come as no surprise that what follows occurred in the dark of night. I don't know how 93 US Senators, elected by the people of this nation, can look themselves in the face this morning. It boggles my mind how little media attention this whole thing has gotten.

Yesterday the Democratic controlled US Senate quietly passed the 680 page National Defense Authorization Act for 2012 (s.1867) by a vote of 93-7. Included in sections 1031 and 1032 of the bill is wording that for all purposes declares the whole of the United States, actually the whole world, a battle zone. As such the US Military could for the first time since the Civil War be allowed to detain United States Citizens within the US and hold them indefinitely without charge or trial. These same US citizens could conceivably face a military and not civil court. That is if they are given a trial at all. As it always seems today the purpose of the provisions is to make it easier to fight and prosecute terrorists but now it seems we are all suspect.

The sections are opposed by President Obama who promises he will veto the entire appropriations bill if they are included. Its is also opposed by the Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, FBI Director Robert Mueller, and many retired military leaders. Friday morning the White House said the veto threat still stands.

"The bill is an historic threat to American citizens and others because it expands and makes permanent the authority of the president to order the military to imprison without charge or trial American citizens," said Christopher Anders, ACLU senior legislative counsel. It should be noted that a compromise was reached in order to pass the bill. The compromise? It only includes US citizens “if we want it too.” One can only wonder what any future President Dick Cheney would think of that.

It all reminds me of a quote....

“For once Benjamin consented to break his rule, and he read out to her what was written on the wall. There was nothing there now except a single Commandment. It ran: All Animals Are Equal But Some Animals Are More Equal Than Others.”

George Orwell, Animal Farm

notes:
Those voting against the bill were Senators Tom Coburn (R-OK), Tom Harkin (D-IA), Mike Lee (R-UT), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Rand Paul (R-KY), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), and Ron Wyyden (D-OR).

update - To clarify what "if we want it to" means.
A compromise amendment was passed which just pushes the entire matter down the road. The compromise simply leaves it to the Supreme Court to decide should some future president decide to assert the authority the bill specifically authorizes him to do. Our current crop of politicians can't even seem to get taking away our freedom right.

Observations from the Coffee Shop 11.28

After a rather mellow holiday weekend with the family I was ready to stay mellow and write something about the end of the Penn State football season. However I have a few things that are irritating me, surprisingly all are coming out of DC, and all of them just drive home the point that those running this country are either totally out of touch with today's world or they just don't give a damn about it.

The first is the Stop Online Piracy Act, HR 3261 or SOPA, which would start the United States down the same road as China when it comes to censoring the internet. Sponsored by the Republican dominated Congress it is just a hand out to entertainment corporations that can't seem to find a way a legal way to make a profit in the 21st century. Forget that the latest installment of The Twilight Saga just had a worldwide weekend box office of almost half a billion dollars, the corporations need our help.

SOPA would give the Department of Justice and copyright holders a fast track to court orders shutting down websites accused of copyright infringement. It would bar internet advertising and payment sites from doing business with the accused pirate sites. Search engines would be barred from linking to the sites and service providers would be forced to block them. Another section of the bill would make unauthorized streaming of copyrighted media a felony.

A major force behind the bill is the Motion Picture Association of America which is using the tried and true fear tactic to push for passage. The MPAA claims that 2 million American jobs hang in the balance and need to be protected. MPAA congressional testimony is frequently quoted by the bills sponsors while testimony that for every job lost the internet creates 2.5 jobs is totally ignored.

Not at all surprising is the fact that a group that includes Google, Yahoo, and Amazon is leading the fight against SOPA. What is surprising is that Microsoft, long a proponent of stronger copyright laws, is also quietly fighting it. Opponents say the bill as written would overturn the provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act which allow warned websites to take down questionable material before further action is taken, the principals YouTube operates by.

A partial list of supporters of the bill includes the MPAA, the Recording Industry Association of America, NBCUniversal, Macmillan Publishers, Viacom, Comcast, the AFL-CIO, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and various other music, cable, and movie companies.

A partial list of opponents includes Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter, AOL, eBay, the Brookings Institute, the ACLU, Human Rights Watch, the American Library Association, Reporters Without Borders, the Business Software Alliance, and TechAmerica which is a tech trade association with 1,200 member companies. Senator Ron Paul said SOPA would cause "an explosion of innovation killing lawsuits and litigation," thus costing not saving jobs. If passed as written the internet as we know it would cease to exist. Flickr, YouTube, and Vimeo would would probably shut down. Twitter would become virtually useless.

We might as well all learn Mandarin and get it over with.

If you want to voice your opposition to the bill click this link to StopCensorship.org and fill out the simple form. A letter will than be generated and sent to your representatives. Also Senator Ron Wyden will read your name from the House of Representatives floor during his flilibuster when and if it comes up for a vote.

Observations from the Edge 11.20

Since the OWS protests began two months ago I have have looked at more photos and watched more videos than I care to remember. Over the past few days I have seen two videos I may never forget. Both are short and simple videos probably taken with a phone or personal cam yet both are stunning in their content Both are haunting in their own way.

In the first video Kayvan Sabehgi, a former marine who served three tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, confronts riot police the night of Occupy Oakland's general strike and was recorded by artist and photographer Neil Rivas. "It was uncalled for. There were no curse words. He was telling them he was a war vet, a resident of Oakland, a business owner," Rivas said of the confrontation. Sabeehgi was beaten to the ground and suffered a ruptured spleen. In a way it is reminiscent of the Tienanmen Square tank man photo except in that confrontation the tank turned, it didn't drive over the man. As somebody commented on one of my flickr photos, these are the men hired to preserve and protect, the only question is who. This video just totally disgusts me.


link

In the second video UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi leaves a meeting and walks through an utterly silent crowd of students. The meeting and press conference that followed were relating to the Friday incident in which seated students protesting in support of Occupy Berkley were pepper sprayed by UC Davis campus police, specifically Lt. John Pike, who said they felt surrounded and feared for their safety. Chancellor Katehi initially refused to leave the building and told the media she was being held hostage. The group of students formed a large gap and chanted “just go home” but for hours she refused to leave the building. The students only convinced Katehi to leave when they sat down and silently linked arms. This video was shot by Lee Fang, an investigative reporter and blogger.

link

As I said before, welcome to George Orwell's America.

Cry for Oakland

Jane Tyska for The Oakland Tribune via owsbot

One has to wonder what has gone wrong in this country when a scene like above can be played out in a major American city. In the predawn hours Tuesday hundreds of police from Oakland and maybe a dozen other central California communities assaulted the Occupy Oakland camp in Oakland's Frank Ogawa Plaza. I use the word assault because police used tear gas, rubber bullets, and flash grenades in the surprise raid. It can be debated where the blame falls for the eviction but what can't be debated is that the show brute and, in the case of rubber bullets, possibly lethal force was totally uncalled for. It all made New York Mayor Bloomberg look rather tame in comparison. 

As I write this Tuesday night hundreds of protesters are marching on Oakland's City Hall and the days total arrests for the day in Oakland stands at over 150.

In another bit of OWS news protesters arrested during Occupy Wall Street's march onto the Brooklyn Bridge may turn down a deal offered by prosecutors. The deal would drop all charges in six months if the individual hadn't been arrested again in that time. Most of the 780 arrested were charged with disorderly conduct and have been offered the deal but the National Lawyer's Guild, the group that represents them, says most may turn the deal down and demand a jury trial clogging the legal system in New York City.

And so it goes.

late update - All hell broke loose in Oakland tonight and the words police riot come to mind. Welcome to George Orwell's America....

link