Rank Hubris

Oct 3rd, 2011

Dick Cheney wants Obama to apologize for speaking plain truths a few years ago regarding 9/11 and the corruption of our values.

You read that right.

It's just the latest act in an ongoing campaign to outlast the march of justice.

One former aide to Secretary of State Colin Powell and fierce Cheney critic, Lawrence Wilkerson, summed it up not long ago:

"He’s developed an angst and almost a protective cover, and now he fears being tried as a war criminal."

It's Not News Because It's Happening Here

Oct 3rd, 2011

UK journalist Tony Gosling speaks to RT on the continuing dismissal of the Occupy movement by the mainstream broadcast media.

Quote Of The Day

Oct 3rd, 2011

Image via CBS

"Disobedience, the rarest and most courageous of the virtues, is seldom distinguished from neglect, the laziest and commonest of the vices."
-- George Bernard Shaw

Worth 1,000 Words

Oct 2nd, 2011

Distorting The Narrative, part 4

Oct 2nd, 2011

An interesting piece of information has been brought to my attention. In the 20 minutes between the NY Times first publishing its reportage of the Brooklyn Bridge arrests and the subsequent alteration of that report (postings HERE, HERE and HERE), the original, solo byline crediting Colin Moynihan was expanded to include Al Baker. Al Baker is the NY Times Police Bureau Chief. Years spent by the NYPD brass allowing Mr. Baker access sure seems to have paid off. It may have also had something to do with Mr. Baker reportedly being the son of an acting Lieutenant with New York's police force.

Here's an update of the increasingly well known graphic depicting what happened yesterday.

The "Anonymous" Warning

Oct 2nd, 2011

Pretty strong stuff directed at the NYPD's now infamous serial-macer and his fellow white shirts.


Elsewhere, The Australian is reporting that the U.S. Government is warning to firms to prepare for potential breaches of their networks:

"The US Department of Homeland Security has warned financial companies to be vigilant about a cyber security threat from Anonymous.

Wanted for shutting down websites as high profile as that of the CIA, a recently released Department of Homeland Security bulletin said the group "will continue to exploit vulnerable publicly available web servers, computer networks and other digital information mediums for the foreseeable future".

Worth 1,000 Words

Oct 2nd, 2011

Image via

One Of The Arrested Speaks

Oct 2nd, 2011

An interesting first person perspective from one of those arrested on the Brooklyn Bridge.

The Demands Of Occupy Wall Street

Oct 2nd, 2011

Everyone who has been asking for a list of demands from the Occupy Wall Street movement, a group of critics which has included myself, just got one.


Anonymous Central has posted the following statement:

"This was unanimously voted on by all members of Occupy Wall Street last night, around 8pm, Sept 29. It is our first official document for release. We have three more underway, that will likely be released in the upcoming days: 1) A declaration of demands. 2) Principles of Solidarity 3) Documentation on how to form your own Direct Democracy Occupation Group. This is a living document. you can receive an official press copy of the latest version by emailing c2anycga@gmail.com.

Distorting The Narrative, part 3

Oct 2nd, 2011

Image via Reuters

Business Insider's Joe Weisenthal has now reported on the deceptive tactics we highlighted HERE and HERE.

I think he goes a little too easy on the NYPD. Nevertheless, he does raise an eyebrow.

"Some have apparently claimed entrapment by the police (who encouraged them to walk on the road), but the people we talked to last night mostly suggested that the police merely stood by and watched, not encouraging them, but not stopping them either.

So far we've seen no evidence of police actually encouraging protesters to go on the road, but there are videos that show police walking in front of the protesters, as they go up onto the road.

This isn't the same as encouraging them to go on the road, but on the other hand, you could see why people in a crowd would think that going on a bridge is kosher if the police are calmly walking in front of the crowd as they go up the road."

Weisenthal also included new video from the Brooklyn Bridge

Chaos On The Bridge

Oct 2nd, 2011

The police led the Occupy Wall Street protesters into the Brooklyn Bridge roadway. It's on video. This was an old school set up of the kind that was once used against anti-war protesters in decades past.

What's notable in the video below is that, much like last week's violence, the more egregious behavior by law enforcement is from the commanders in white shirts, not the rank and file. What's more, some high ranking law enforcement officials can be seen clearly shouting down their more unruly counterparts (note the exchange captured at the 18 second mark). It's a mess.

Quote Of The Day - Occupy Wall Street Edition

Oct 2nd, 2011

Anne Dentler's "Semper Fi" via

"I’m heading up there tonight in my dress blues. So far, 15 of my fellow marine buddies are meeting me there, also in Uniform. I want to send the following message to Wall St and Congress:I didn’t fight for Wall St. I fought for America. Now it’s Congress’ turn.

My true hope, though, is that we Veterans can act as first line of defense between the police and the protester. If they want to get to some protesters so they can mace them, they will have to get through the Fucking Marine Corps first. Let’s see a cop mace a bunch of decorated war vets." 

-- a U.S marine stating his intention to join the Occupy Wall Street protest and bring some of his fellow veterans with him.

Distorting The Narrative, cont...

Oct 2nd, 2011
Follow Occupy Wall Street on twitter

Earlier, we posted our take on the mass arrests yesterday in New York. We held that it was clearly the police who created the situation in order to split and harass the crowd and highlighted the obvious propaganda spin which the NY Times employed in its coverage. We are doubling down on this. The following video shows the NYPD actually leading marchers onto the Brooklyn Bridge roadway. No attempts are being made to stop them.

Distorting The Narrative

Oct 2nd, 2011
UPDATE 10:00am CST 10/02/11 There is video of the NYPD actually leading the marchers into the Brooklyn Bridge roadway.

From multiple sources, it seems clear that yesterday's mass arrests of at least 700 people who marched on the Brooklyn Bridge as part of the Occupy Wall Street movement was an event engineered by law enforcement rather than the result of intentional violations of ordinances.

The image below shows that this narrative was squashed almost from the beginning.

Sam Seder Defends The Occupation

Oct 2nd, 2011

In response to a particularly smug and, at times, downright disturbing opinion piece from the Daily News, Sam Seder had a few things to say:


I will be honest. I have received some blow back regarding my calls last week for more focused demands from the Occupy Wall Street movement. I was even derided by one reader for being a member of the "professional left," which is nuts. The thing is, I stand firmly behind the action. I am not arguing against it. This civil disobedience probably should have been engaged in 30 years ago when the seeds for the current state of American misery were being planted. Now, the uprising has become inevitable.

There is no safety on the sidelines. There are no sidelines. We are all in this together. We must openly join them and publicly support them.

Quote Of The Day

Oct 2nd, 2011

Robert Stolarik for The New York Times

"If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality."
-- Bishop Desmond Tutu

Fighting FOR The Double Dip

Oct 1st, 2011

Kevin Drum argues that the coming double dip will be wholly owned by the Tea Party and their sympathetic (or fearful) agents in the 112th Congress. The kicker:

"If we want them to, both monetary and fiscal policy can have plenty of bite left. Bottom line: If we plummet into a second recession, it will be solely the fault of fanatical conservatives in Congress who refuse for reasons both partisan and ideological to acknowledge that we can do something about this. It'll be the Tea Party Recession of 2011."

I think it's worse than Drum realizes. We're not dealing with a group that's simply opposed to changes in "fiscal and monetary policy" now. We're dealing with a collectively delusional cabal that is opposed to centralized intervention ever. Their meme of "not picking winners" has devolved into an unthinking scheme that ensures greater hardship for most Americans.

So, yeah. They own it.

Getting Back To "Jobs, Jobs, Jobs"

Oct 1st, 2011

Krugman makes an accurate observation in his latestet critique of GOP obstructionism and self-delusion:

"The starting point for many claims that antibusiness policies are hurting the economy is the assertion that the sluggishness of the economy’s recovery from recession is unprecedented. 


But, as a new paper by Lawrence Mishel of the Economic Policy Institute documents at length, this is just not true. Extended periods of “jobless recovery” after recessions have been the rule for the past two decades. Indeed, private-sector job growth since the 2007-2009 recession has been better than it was after the 2001 recession."

I have pointed out, time and again, that job creation ended as we once knew it a decade ago. We are now, in fact, on track to add more jobs to the American economy in a single Obama term than were added under eight years of Bush II.

Hey Kids! It's Glenn Beck Time!

Oct 1st, 2011
by F. Grey Parker
NSFW. Also, it's not a violation of Godwin when you are actually fighting a fascist.

I have to admit that I'm surprised I didn't see this coming sooner. Remember when Glenn Beck accused the President of "indoctrination" for giving a back-to-school speech to America's children?


Beck likened Barack Obama to Mussolini at the time. How could he not draw such a frightening comparison when the President's speech was riddled with such overtly partisan messages as this one?

"Every single one of you has something you’re good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That’s the opportunity an education can provide."

You get the idea. Well, Beck's back, baby, and he actually is after the children.

Quote Of The Day

Oct 1st, 2011

"A modern revolutionary group heads for the television station." 
-- Abbie Hoffman