Politics Plus

You probably don’t need me to tell you that Mayor Bloomberg has ordered OWS demonstrators to leave Zuccotti Park “for cleaning”, and when they come back they must come equipped in a way that will make it impossible to stay.  I smell a big fat Republican rat!  In the following excerpt, Van Jones fights back.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is making a cowardly attempt to end Occupy Wall Street, the anchor of a movement that has captured the hearts and minds of the country in just four weeks. Tomorrow at 7 a.m., under Bloomberg’s orders, the NYPD will evict the 99%.

Unless we stop that from happening.

We have very little time to act. There are at least three things you can do right now:

1. SIGN THIS PETITION now. MoveOn.org has started a major petition drive to tell Mayor Bloomberg: "Respect the protesters’ First Amendment rights. Don’t try to evict Occupy Wall Street." The petition will be put in the hands of the occupiers TONIGHT, and then delivered to the mayor. A massive stack of signatures will show Occupy Wall Street and Bloomberg that the nation stands with the 99%, not the 1%.
2. Tell everyone you know in the New York area that they should head to Zuccotti Park at 6:00 AM tomorrow (Friday Oct 14) to prevent Bloomberg from evicting the protesters. If enough people literally stand with the protesters, Bloomberg could back down.
3. Call 311 (if you live in New York City) or 212-NEW-YORK (if you live elsewhere in the US) and demand that Bloomberg back down from interfering with the occupiers’ brave stand on behalf of the 99% of us.

The mayor’s justification for this eviction is a ruse. Bloomberg says authorities need to "clean" the park. Meanwhile, he refuses to acknowledge that Occupy Wall Street has a functioning sanitation detail, just as they’ve self-organized every other aspect of their dignified, intentional community (including a working library).

 

Bloomberg says the protestors may return after the "cleaning," but this also is less than honest. Upon returning to the park, occupiers must follow rules that make the occupation impossible: no camping; no sleeping bags; no tents; no lying down; no storage of personal property.

 

Make no mistake — this is an eviction. Winter is coming, and the occupiers cannot continue without the ability to stay safe, warm, and dry… [emphasis original]

Inserted from <Huffington Post>

I urge you to sign the petition and, if local, participate in the other activities.

Keith Olbermann covered this story in two segments on Countdown.  In the first, he interviews attorney Gideon Oliver.

I have to plug Portland, Oregon for coming to a negotiated settlement of the difficulties here.  In the second, Keith interviews journalist Matt Taibbi.

I commend the demonstrators for their resolve, and pray that they do not respond with violence, if assaulted by police supervisors again.

Once again, please sign that petition!

I’m almost starting to like Michele Bachmann and feel sad that her campaign will still come to an end.  No other presidential contender has ever provided us with such an endless stream of comic relief.  Each new gaffe leaves the last one in the dust.

In an appearance Thursday morning on Fox News, Michele Bachmann might have put forward the boldest tax proposal of all Republican candidates: Raising taxes to where they were when Ronald Reagan was president.

Bachmann criticized Herman Cain’s “9-9-9” tax plan, and its inclusion of a national sales tax.

“For my tax plan, I take a page out of one of my great economists that I admire, Ronald Reagan,” Bachmann boasted. “And under my tax plan I want to adopt the Reagan tax plan. It brought the economic miracle of the 1980s. Why not go with what works? I want to reinstitute the Reagan tax model from the 1980s.”… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <TPM>

Don’t believe it?   Here’s the video.

Michele, under Reagan the top marginal tax rate was 50% on $250,000 or more!

When Republicans ran for office in 2010, their mantra was “Jobs! Jobs! Jobs!”  Since they took control of the House, they have not brought a single bill to the floor intended to create jobs.  They refuse to debate or vote on the American Jobs Act.  In fact, they avoid the subject like a plague, except to lie that they are pursuing it.  To avoid the jobs issue, they turn to social issues, such as their war on Islam, war on immigrants, war on gays, and in this example, war on women.

In what would be a major and potentially deadly change in American healthcare policy, The House of Representatives will take up H.R. 358 —The Protect Life Act—this week. The bill would permit federally funded hospitals to refuse abortion services even to women who would likely die without the procedure.

As the law currently stands, hospitals are required by EMTALA to provide emergency care to anyone who walks through their doors. If a hospital is unable or unwilling to perform a necessary procedure, it is obligated to stabilize the patient and then transfer the individual to a facility that can perform the procedure and agrees to do so. As a result of the EMTALA requirements, the 600 plus Catholic hospitals in the nation who are unwilling to perform abortions on religious grounds, even in life-threatening circumstances to the mother, are obligated to transfer that patient in need of such a procedure to a hospital that agrees to perform the required operation.

If The Protect Life Act were to pass, this would no longer be the case. Hospitals that do not care to perform abortions, for whatever reason and even when the procedure is required to save the life of the mother, would be legally permitted to simply do nothing… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Mother Jones>

In the interest of disclosure, I believe that abortion is a terrible decision.  However, I recognize that sometimes, it is the least terrible of the options available.  I also recognize that I lack the right to impose my personal belief on anyone else, so as much as I dislike abortion, the decision belongs not to me, but to each individual woman faced with that choice, and therefore I fully support a woman’s right to choose.

But Republican attempts to destroy personal freedom is not what is on Americans’ minds.  Jobs is.  Rachel Maddow covers this disconnect and other issues with columnist EJ Dionne

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

Everything Republicans do can be traced back to one of two purposes.  First is the transfer of wealth from the poor and middle classes to millionaires, billionaires and corporate criminals.  Second is the establishment of a permanent regime of Republican one-party rule.  Creating jobs with a Democratic President in office mitigates against the second purpose.

When I think of 9-9-9, what comes to mind is Sgt. Schultz from Hogan’s Heroes, saying “Nein! Nein! Nein!”, followed by, “I know nothing!”  Even though several outside economists have declared that Cain’s plan will cause a huge drop in federal revenue, Cain denies their claims, based on his so-called “panel of economists”, that appear to be mythical.  He only names one advisor, and lied about that advisor’s credentials.

From Politico — Herman Cain’s economic adviser is not an economist:

Herman Cain says his much-touted 9-9-9 plan is the product of extensive testing and thinking, but the only man he cited as involved with its research — Rich Lowrie of Cleveland, Ohio — is not a trained economist.

Instead, Lowrie — who’s the only economic adviser Cain has been willing to mention by name — is a wealth manager for a division of Wells Fargo and according to his LinkedIn page holds an accountancy degree from Case Western Reserve University. Lowrie also spent three years on the advisory board of the conservative third-party group Americans For Prosperity.

The former Godfather’s Pizza CEO was pressed for his circle of economic advisers at Tuesday’s debate in response to a question from moderator Karen Tumulty of the Washington Post.

“My advisers come from the American people. Now, I will have some experts. One of my experts that helped me to develop this is a gentleman by the name of Rich Lowrie out of Cleveland, Ohio,” Cain said during the debate. “He is an economist, and he has worked in the business of wealth creation most of his career.”

… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Crooks and Liars>

Here’s the video.  Watch Cain lie.

Now, if Lowrie is a wealth manager, not an economist, what does a wealth manager at a bank do?  Ideally, they help people plan for their future by analyzing their needs and providing them the investments that meet those needs.  Some are honest and take that role seriously.  Others are just securities sales people for Banksters.  My best guess is that Lowrie is one of the latter, because he also worked three years for Americans for Prosperity, the advocacy front group founded by and operating for the Koch Brothers.