Open Thread – Constitution vs. Cops
At Occupy Oakland, a U.S. Navy sailor holds up a copy of the Constitution to the advancing Oakland PD, who are about to clear the park. [photo by Pancho Pescador]
November 18, 2024
Thursday, August 3, 2023
The Quitter Returns! -Monday, March 21, 2022
Putting the goober in gubernatorial -Friday, January 28, 2022
At Occupy Oakland, a U.S. Navy sailor holds up a copy of the Constitution to the advancing Oakland PD, who are about to clear the park. [photo by Pancho Pescador]
How refreshing…the Palin media spotlight has not only dimmed, it seems to have suffered a major outage. This clip from TPM (from 3 Oct.) says it all:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvZRtBbTEpA
I have to side with the late night comedians, however…the woman made for some great jokes. For that alone, she will be missed.
Just listened to Toby Keith and Stephen Colbert sing our National Anthem. A capella. I have goosebumps. beth.
Donald Trump is on Pierce Morgan tonight! Never heard such BS! I don’t know why he was invited as a guest.
China likes to blame all Tibetan uprisings on the Dalai Lama (who has been living in exile in India for decades), but their “Tibetan problem” is all the fault of their repressive (and in some cases, genocidal) policies.
Monks (and in one case a nun) have resorted to self-immolation:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/asia-pacific/tibetan-protests-against-china-turn-desperate-as-self-immolations-increase/article2215026/
Next time you buy something cheap from China, remember what it is you’re supporting with your dollars. Just sayin’.
Want to watch a neocon’s head explode (I know, you all do)? Then give them this chart which shows how countries stack up against each other in their citizen’s upward mobility. Take note that the highest ranking countries (those whose citizenry have the best opportunities to improve financially) are the countries with the most socialized services:
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/10/chart-of-the-day-paul-ryan-wrong-about-upwardly-mobile-america.php?ref=fpblg
My dad took a photo of very nearly the same thing in the same place almost 50 years ago.
Something is going to have to give—-if our country gets out of this hole. Otherwise, we will be like a 3rd world country. The super rich living in mansions, and the rest of us in poverty.
If the Reps have their way—-they will get rid of Soc Sec , and medicare. And I agree about women’s rights. When did laws on social issues create jobs. And now I hear that they (Republicans) are trying to supress the vote in the next election. Millions will have a hard time voting. They KNOW that these are the people who will vote Democrat. Everyday—-I hear some stupid “idea” of theirs.
That Ad of Cain’s is off the Wall! I guess I am stupid, as I can’t figure out what the hell he is talking about. Maybe the Iowa farmers and other farm states should withhold production of food. After all, food just doesn’t “show-up” in cans at the market. Maybe we should trade corn for oil—–jack up the price. I don’t think people in congress realize the price of farm equip. Or have they checked the price of land recently? The small farmers are getting shut out . They too will be without a job.
Hopefully Christie Vilsack will help these young new farmers. I pray that she beats King in the next election.
“When did laws on social issues create jobs”
They create more layers of bureaucracy, more government jobs, and more government spending of our tax dollars when they are implemented and enforced. Never mind that the people proposing them claim to be against all that. There is no hypocrisy greater than that of a social “conservative” who claims to be for “small government.”
I’m greatly saddened by the ever-shrinking number of old-school Republicans who think government should stay out of people’s personal lives. We should all teach our children our values at home and in church, but using taxpayer dollars to shove them down other people’s throats is just wrong and a danger our founding fathers wisely and clearly warned against.
I’m sure then, that you would agree it shouldn’t be required for all students at a school to receive a lecture about accepting a student simply because he believes he is a girl and prefers to dress that way? You should also believe, then, that it woudl be inappropriate for the school to ban any comments indicating a student might believe homosexuality is wrong, just as it would be wrong to ban any comments saying homosexuality is a personal choice?
I see these comments and statements a lot. Unfortunately, the speaker isn’t usually willing to concede that staying out of someone’s personal life means staying completely out. Christian or atheist, Muslim or Jew, gay or straight, male or female, white or black, pro-choice or pro-life…all these positions and circumstances should be freely discussed, and that’s NOT happening.
I agree with what you said: Children should be raised by their parents and then make their own decision and live with the results. Do you really feel that way? How about all the others you know who claim to support parental choice?
The Brennan Center for Justice, a non-partisan organization, has some excellent articles on this.
Here’s one: “Study: New Voting Restrictions May Affect More than Five Million”
http://www.brennancenter.org/content/resource/study_new_voting_restrictions_may_affect….
The key is that the demonstrators need to truly be non-violent. I found it disturbing that one of the protestors admitted last night on Lawrence O’Donnell that some were throwing rocks and bottles. The police response was totally inappropriate, I agree – especially when people went to the aid of the man who was down. That was appalling. However, they (the demonstrators) won’t gain the support they need if they resort to violence. Even though the police are protected by their riot gear, when a crowd turns violent it clouds their message and diminshes their strong voice.
My best to the young man who was injured. And my thanks to him for serving our country. How horrible that he was in Iraq twice and comes home to be injured just because he is speaking out for the country he loves and fought for.
Well said, Pat.
I just sent the young man, Scott Olsen a healing and solidarity card….
Scott Olsen
c/o Highland General Hospital
1411 East 31st Street
Oakland Ca 94602
In case any one wants to send one as well
I just was on a military times or some such site…in the comments they asked…why would the police throw another tear gas canister into the crowd, when it was obvious that a person was down and they were going to help him? (have you seen the video)
I also called and filed a complaint with the Oakland police dept…and mayor office…these were Unarmed…NON violent protesters
saw a video this am…where Oakland council went down to Occupy and spoke with them…
they Occupy that is, Oakland…is calling for strike NOV 2
I go from tears to rage….wonder how my country would have reacted if the scene was from Egypt last spring instead of from a US city.
When the crowd was attempting to help Scott, police launched a flash grenade at them.
Thanks for the address, Judi.
Rachel Maddow had a very good explanation about how this gap between the 1% and the rest of us started and has been continuing.
Excellent graph. Also she calls out the ones saying that OWS and President Obama are creating class warfare. She shows that the class warfare has been continuing for decades.
Excellent post by Matt Taibbi about just how coddled Wall Street is:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/owss-beef-wall-street-isnt-winning-its-cheating-20111025
pointing at a problem and creating a problem are two differant things.
That yuong man is either very couragous or very stupid… if I remember correctly, you are NOT allowed to participate in demonstrations while in uniform under the UCMJ….and can be charged. If he’s lucky, no one in authority identified and reported him.
True, Ben – he needs to be very, very careful. I read last night that the young wounded man is a former Marine with two tours in the sandboxes, and in another article it was reported that a number of ex-Marines planned on showing up and demonstrating en masse as a group as a result.
If the junior enlisted are demonstrating, all bets are off on any kind of cohesion in the ranks. The police may find themselves facing very angry people who won’t take “no” for an answer, and have the painful credibility of serving their country to boot.
It could get ugly…
I am hoping against hope that the young man in the photo is *former* US Navy, and has pulled out his uniform from the back of the closet or the bottom of a trunk to attend the demonstration. I was chatting with a young man yesterday who has been out of the USN for 8 months — it wouldn’t surprise me in the least if he put on his [old] uniform to OWS. beth.
They are afraid.
And they should be.
It is about time that those of us who are fed up with the system stand up and say, NO MORE!!!!
Women especially need to stand up to the republican religious right or they will find they and their bodies will be regulated by conservative evangelical religious beliefs.
Access to birth control and abortion will be forbidden.
And we all know they they think that woman should be submissive to their husbands.
Will regulations about women in the work force be next??
The women of Yemen are standing up. To protest the murderous Saleh administration, they burned their veils in public:
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/10/20111026164441431354.html
“Hundreds of Yemeni women have set fire to traditional female veils in protest against the government’s brutal crackdown on the country’s popular uprising, as overnight clashes in the capital and another city killed 25 people, officials said.
“Women spread a black cloth across a main street in the capital Sanaa on Wednesday and threw their full-body veils, known as makrama, onto a pile, sprayed it with oil and set it ablaze.
“As the flames rose, women activists handed out leaflets appealing for help and protection.
“This is a plea from the free women of Yemen; here we burn our makrama in front of the world to witness the bloody massacres carried by the tyrant [President Ali Abdullah] Saleh,” the leaflets read.”
Non violence and civil disobedience needs to be.
I heard on the news tonight that one protester was critically injured. The latest is that they’re allowed to protest during daylight hours only.
These are tough times we live in.
Daily Kos has the story of the injured protester, a Marine who has suffered a skull fracture, caused either by a rubber bullet or a teargas canister. Veterans for Peace held a vigil in Oakland. Link later.