OWS Changes the Conversation

The payroll tax cut used to be a Republican idea, but now that President Obama is for it, they're against extending it. That is, until Occupy Wall Street made clear the division between the 1% and the 99%:

If Republicans block the measure, as expected, Democrats would paint them as the party of the rich.

Trying to get ahead of the game, McConnell proclaimed Republican support for the payroll tax cut extension and told reporters his party would soon propose its own ideas for covering the cost of the tax cut.

"The Democrats put them in a box," said Andrew Taylor, a North Carolina State University political science professor. "I think many Republicans realized this is a bad side of the argument to be on."

Thanks to the protesters, there's media buzz highlighting the GOP's behavior and allegiances. It's common knowledge now, nothing anyone can obfuscate with rhetoric. And you know #OWS matters when the new GOP frontrunner, Newt Gingrich, calls on President Obama to repudiate the movement and its message of wealth inequality.

As Robert Reich tells us, the Basic Bargain holding our society together and creating growth in the 20th Century has been torn apart by greed and must be restored:

For most of the last century, the basic bargain at the heart of the American economy was that employers paid their workers enough to buy what American employers were selling.

That basic bargain created a virtuous cycle of higher living standards, more jobs, and better wages.

...

The latest data on corporate profits and wages show we haven't learned the essential lesson of the two big economic crashes of the last 75 years: When the economy becomes too lopsided -- disproportionately benefiting corporate owners and top executives rather than average workers -- it tips over.

In other words, we're in trouble because the basic bargain has been broken.

...

Corporations don't need more money. They have so much money right now they don't even know what to do with all of it. They're even buying back their own shares of stock. This is a bonanza for CEOs whose pay is tied to stock prices and it increases the wealth of other shareholders. But it doesn't create a single new job and it doesn't raise the wages of a single employee.

Nor do the wealthiest Americans need more money. The top 1 percent is already taking in more than 20 percent of total income -- the highest since the 1920s.

American businesses, including small-business owners, have no incentive to create new jobs because consumers (whose spending accounts for about 70 percent of the American economy) aren't spending enough. Consumers' after-tax incomes dropped in the second and third quarters of the year, the first back-to-back drops since 2009.

The Dems are proposing to pay for the payroll tax cut with a surtax on millionaires -- affecting 0.2% of the U.S. population.

I hesitate to ask what 1%-favoring counterproposal GOP will come up with themselves.

Bunch of Endings

Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) announced his retirement from Congress today -- he won't be running again next year -- at age 71. This is a huge bummer legislatively, but hopefully he'll turn up on news commentary a lot more, especially as he promising not to become a lobbyist. Consistently the smartest and wittiest guy in the House, Frank was no different today:

[Barney Frank] on the House under Republican rule: “It consists half of people who think like Michele Bachmann and half of people who are afraid of losing a primary to people who think like Michele Bachmann and that leaves very little room to work things out.”

Goodbye to Ken Russell, legendary British film director known for his combination or erudition and over-the-top visuals. Classics include: Women in Love (Oscar for star Glenda Jackson), Altered States, Tommy, The Lair of the White Worm, The Devils. Who can ever forget Tina Turner as the Acid Queen?

Goodbye to pre-IPO Facebook, between April and June 2012. The stock options will never mean the same thing again, the innocence lost, time for quarterly analyst calls and big annual reports. Guaranteed to have more investors than anyone imagines.

Goodbye to 2000's European prosperity. And maybe the Euro.

And, as much as we all hope not, we may be saying hello to a new global depression.

Art Pepper-Spray

Gotta love the new meme of the U.C. Davis pepper-spraying cop making his way through art history. There's this article, this blog post and then then Tumblr. My personal faves:

and

Modern art masterpieces, one and all.

Mitt the Liar

Is there anything that Mitt Romney will not lie about? Twice in one day, starting with his willful distortion in a campaign attack ad of a phrase spoken by President Barack Obama four years ago quoting John McCain's campaign, making it seem like Obama is speaking about his own current campaign:

Then, in tonight's GOP debate, he actually lied about his first name:

It's actually Willard.

Not to be trust. Certainly not with the Presidency of the United States of America.

Saul Bass

The Title Design of Saul Bass from Ian Albinson on Vimeo.

Evidently in honor of a new book coming out about the work of Main Titles designer extraordinaire, Saul Bass.

What's striking is how modern his work seems -- still. With most of his work created pre-CGI, it's shocking how visionary and vivid so much of it is. Vertigo, of course, is a favorite, along with Psycho which I recently saw in the theater again -- the opening credits with the Bernard Herrmann music really set you on edge from the start, give the sense that something really twisted is already underway. And the work for Otto Preminger as well as Martin Scorsese is ingenious.

Enjoy.

Flashpoint: UC Davis

Fascinating chain of events starting on Friday when a police officer blanketed a row of sitting protesters on the University of California Davis campus with military-grade pepper spray. This video has now been viewed over a million times -- the spraying is near the start:

It's not quite Kent State -- no students were shot to death -- but appalling in its own right. These were peaceful protesters, not throwing rocks or threatening anybody, and the now famous Officer John Pike chose to douse them like roaches. No doubt the students who endured this silently are heroes to their classmates now.

Even move compelling is this video from later the next night, when the Chancellor who is responsible for putting the police on this, Linda Katehi, does what is essentially a perp walk past silent students. She had been in the administrative building for a meeting, this after various faculty called for her resignation, and evidently claimed the students outside were preventing her from leaving. In response, the organizers promised her safe passage and, as you can see in this video, called upon the protesting students for peace:

The walk of shame. Katehi has put out a statement today that's rather different from the day before, acknowledging what she's learned of the atrocious police action and promising some sort of change.

I wonder if she'll be able to keep her job, but it will only be by showing total growth and bending to the will of the people. If so, I believe she may become a model for others.

If not, she stands condemned with the 1% and their enablers.

Happy Two Month Anniversary

At two months in, Occupy Wall Street is now occupying the world, especially today, after being kicked out of Zuccotti Park but taking over NYC and parts of other cities as well. Some of the highlights include:

• Journalists being arrested (nouveau fascism?) for reporting on police crackdowns on protesters
• Retired police chief getting arrested for his protesting
• Movie star Anne Hathaway showing up, smart and low-key
• New Jersey voters now favoring a millionaire's tax
• Huge message projections on the Verizon building by the Brooklyn Bridge:
• A message to Mayor Bloomberg:

And, best of all perhaps, now to morph the movement into political demands - what Jesse LaGreca calls PHASE 2:

It is time to TAX THE RICH

It is time to END THE WARS

It is time to restore Glass-Steagal

It is time to repeal Citizens United

It is time to get the money OUT OF POLITICS

It is time to invest in infrastructure and education

It is time to STOP busting labor unions, whether private or public

It is time to defend Medicare and Social Security tooth and nail from phony reforms or baloney cuts

It is time to STOP the spending cuts and start investing in America, and if we have to raise taxes on the rich and corporations in order to force them to invest in America, then so be it.

It is time to make higher education affordable, to offer students debt relief, and to provide funding for education, and stop blaming honest teachers and educators and for the failures of an underfunded system.

It is time to STOP the racist and discriminatory practice of "Stop and Frisk" and other tactics of racial profiling

It is time for civil rights for ALL, and that means equal rights for LGBT Americans to serve our military and marry whom ever they will

It is time for ACCOUNTABILITY for the men who lied us into war and crashed our economy

It is time for immigration reform that does not punish workers, but provides a clear pathway to citizenship for everyone

It is time for investigations that lead to prosecutions on Wall Street in response to the crimes that have been committed in the last decade.

It is time for a serious discussion about the Federal Reserve and it's role in this economic disaster

It is time for universal health care that everyone can afford. It is time to talk about Single Payer Health Care.

It is time for alternative green energy instead of Oil and Coal.

It is time to protect our civil liberties and our constitution.

It is time for a discussion about free trade and how it has undermined the working class while enriching only the wealthiest among us.

It is time to end corporate personhood.

I'd say Mayor Bloomberg did the movement a favor. Time to move on from tents -- by moving it all on up to the legislative bodies.

Lies and the Lying Liars

It seems that the GOP Presidential hopefuls are spreading more lies about something President Obama said -- again. For the record, the President did NOT call American workers "lazy." In reality:

But when you examine what Obama said on Saturday -- to business leaders at the APEC summit in Hawaii -- it's pretty clear that his critics are taking him out of context. He wasn't calling Americans lazy; rather, he was callingU.S. business practices to attract foreign investors lazy. In fact, you could interpret his full remarks as a call to arms to improve on that front.

MR. McNERNEY: I think one related question, looking at the world from the Chinese side, is what they would characterize as impediments to investment in the United States. And so that discussion I’m sure will be part of whatever dialogue you have. And so how are you thinking about that?

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, this is an issue, generally. I think it’s important to remember that the United States is still the largest recipient of foreign investment in the world. And there are a lot of things that make foreign investors see the U.S. as a great opportunity -- our stability, our openness, our innovative free market culture.

But we’ve been a little bit lazy, I think, over the last couple of decades. We’ve kind of taken for granted -- well, people will want to come here and we aren’t out there hungry, selling America and trying to attract new business into America. And so one of things that my administration has done is set up something called SelectUSA that organizes all the government agencies to work with state and local governments where they’re seeking assistance from us, to go out there and make it easier for foreign investors to build a plant in the United States and put outstanding U.S. workers back to work in the United States of America.

Meanwhile, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney has been lying about the difference between his healthcare plan enacted for that state and the one enacted by Congress under President Obama -- so says his own former advisor, not mincing words:

He credited Mitt Romney for not totally disavowing the Massachusetts bill during his presidential campaign, but said Romney's attempt to distinguish between Obama's bill and his own is disingenuous.

"The problem is there is no way to say that," Gruber said. "Because they're the same fucking bill. He just can't have his cake and eat it too. Basically, you know, it's the same bill. He can try to draw distinctions and stuff, but he's just lying. The only big difference is he didn't have to pay for his. Because the federal government paid for it. Where at the federal level, we have to pay for it, so we have to raise taxes."

The danger is that lies become memes and they harden into "truthies" in the minds of low or mid-information voters. Hard to battle, but it must be done.

Otherwise you end up on the swiftboat.

Occupy the Holidays

I was hoping to take the kids to see Occupy Wall Street in NYC next week, but that tourist attraction is now undetermined. It turns out the Federal government colluded with over a dozen cities to set the movement of the parks today, most notably NYC where the 12th richest man in America, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, must be cleaning up in advance of the first wave of holiday tourism next week.

The good news is that it isn't working everywhere and, more importantly, the protesters have already changed the national conversation from the GOP deficit talking points. Deficit reduction is for the 1%; taxing the rich is for the 99%.

To top it off, the movement occupied the offices of the owners of NYC's Zuccotti Park tonight in Washington, DC:

The conversation continues.

Clowntime Still Ending

Here's yesterday's GOP frontrunner attempting to recall U.S. foreign policy:



Herman, we hardly knew ye. Good luck on the rest of your book tour.

Just like every two weeks, there's a new GOP frontrunner. I kid you not.

Newt.

Mic Check: Eric Cantor

I have disagreements about interrupting speakers, but if you're going to do it, this is the way, with an exit after you make your point. My God, the #OWS movement is public in a way the same kind of protest action never could be in the past, thanks to the wonder that is YouTube.

So to me, this is all kinds of awesome:

Eric Cantor put the full faith and credit of this nation at risk for his ideological goals and for his billionaire classmasters. As the protesters say, voting against the interests of the people. No one believes the job creator myth anymore, not when guys like Mitt Romney have a raw capitalist history of coming into a company and reaping monstrous profits before downsizing or offshoring it.

We've entered a new Robber Baron age and the economy can't support it. The people don't want the end of capitalism, they just want it to work properly, which ended under Bush. Labor has a different face now, white collar or flannel collar, but it's Labor rising up just as it did a hundred years ago when the rich went too far.

The biggest threat to Capitalism right now is not #OWS or Anonymous, it's Climate Change. That's the phrase Republican communications guru Frank Luntz invented to stave off Global Warming, and it's actually worse for the GOP because it's more accurate. Catastrophic early winter may not be quite as bad as a tsunami or a fracking-caused earthquakes, but it's all part of how our collective appetite for things and comfort is so ravenous and, currently, so critical to the economy, that unregulated Capitalism is essentially riding straight at a series of cliffs, and nobody really knows how far down's the fall.

Earth: Too big to fail?

Redemption through Recovery

The story of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) is about to become as inspiring as possible. She will become a living memorial and reminder of those who did not survive the psycho assassin's bullets that day. She will become a powerful symbol for the Left of resilience and, ultimately, courage in the face of dark, reactionary forces that sometimes scare us out of our convictions.

However, as her mother so correctly notes in the upcoming Diane Sawyer piece with Giffords, her astronaut husband, family, doctors and therapists, she now has a message that rises above, that is larger than politics:

A special person made that much more special by the calamity visited upon her, and by her character as revealed in her recovery from it.

A living symbol and beacon.

Stupid Person

Bye, bye, Rick:

Enjoy all the money you raised.

Oh, and Herman?

You're stupid, too.

Great Day for Sanity

Wow, for an off-year election, Tuesday, November 8, 2011 turned out to be a doozy of a setback for the reactionary GOP forces that swept the elections one year ago. Sanity has prevailed like wildfire:

• In Ohio, Republican Governor John Kasich's anti-union law was struct down forcefully by voters

• Ditto the Mississippi anti-choice law defining personhood at conception - gone, gone, gone

• Arizona State Senate President and architect of the absurdly strict immigration law, Republican Russell Pearce, was voted out in a recall election after spending crazy amounts of dough

• Marriage equality is safe in Iowa thanks to a definitive Dem State Senator win that was supposed to be a squeaker with the Tea Party candidate

• Maine now has same-day election registration after the GOP ran ads against that voting right

• Even the Raleigh, NC school district went Dem majority...

• ...and Pittsburgh got referendum approval of a city library-supporting tax (.25/$1000 of property value)

It sure seems like proof that Republican overreach and partisanship has awakened the non-reactionary Americans from their electoral slumber. I'll be interested to see if they guys like Kasich "moderating" their positions or at least pretending to from here to the next election. Is this the beginning of the Obama "comeback?"

Because in non-Election Day news, Obama's healthcare reform just won a big court test (with conservative judges included), and the GOP's "front-runner" is making his own disaster much, much worse. Daily.

Is there a tide turning?

God bless democracy.

God bless these United States of America.

Moneygoodness

Moneyball is the best kind of throwback movie, one that feels completely new because it's tackling a subject that hasn't been done by a big movie before and it doesn't bobble the ball. It's a 1970's movie in tone, the kind of high end Robert Altman-type picture with long lenses, a quasi-documentary feel, but looking at great, unvarnished performances.

It feels very, very honest, not just for the naturalistic shooting style, but also because it's a true baseball movie, one of the rare true baseball movies, because it isn't about winning. Baseball, as anyone who really knows the game will tell you, is really about losing and how you handle that, how you tackle that, how you come back from that, and how it happens over and over again. No team in baseball is World Champion forever, no manager has a perfect record, and if you're successful only 1/3 of the time you get up to bat, you're the best player in the game most years.

Brad Pitt carried this project, this adaptation of Michael Lewis' book, from when Steven Soderbergh was going to direct it with a Steve Zaillian script to the current version directed by Bennett Miller (building nicely on his debut feature, Capote) with the Aaron Sorkin rewrite, and he was smart to do so. His Billy Beane, the major league draft who turned down a full Stanford scholarship to underperform all expectations as a player and sought redemption moving up the scouting ranks to General Manager of the then-hapless Oakland A's, is a great, driven, relatable movie character. We're with Pitt the whole way, infusing the leading role with character touches, an easy, flawed guy to root for, especially when he picks up Jonah Hill's Peter Brand character, based on a real-life Ivy League Economics Major who taught Beane the Bill James way of looking at evaluating players, capsizing the entire value proposition of the player salary game.

I'm sure this movie will work fine on a big TV with your Pay-Per-View, HBO, Academy Screener, whatever. It's not spectacularly filled with special effects. It doesn't rely on a throbbing soundtrack or familiar pop tune. It's all about character, story, and how we battle big to make good on regrets.

And it's a pleasure to be in a theater with Beane, Brand, Coach Art Howe and rest of the players. It's actually about something.

Global 99%

Noted economist and Columbia University professor Joseph Stiglitz had this to say about the Occupy Wall Street movement in an article in English language Al Jazeera this weekend:

The protest movement that began in Tunisia in January, subsequently spreading to Egypt and then to Spain, has now become global - with the protests engulfing Wall Street and cities across America. Globalisation and modern technology now enables social movements to transcend borders as rapidly as ideas can.

And social protest has found fertile ground everywhere: A sense that the "system" has failed, and the conviction that even in a democracy, the electoral process will not set things right - at least not without strong pressure from the street.

...

The rise in inequality is the product of a vicious spiral: The rich rent-seekers use their wealth to shape legislation in order to protect and increase their wealth - and their influence. The US Supreme Court, in its notorious Citizens United decision, has given corporations free rein to use their money to influence the direction of politics. But, while the wealthy can use their money to amplify their views, back on the street, police wouldn't allow me to address the OWS protesters through a megaphone.

The contrast between overregulated democracy and unregulated bankers did not go unnoticed. But the protesters are ingenious: They echoed what I said through the crowd, so that all could hear. And, to avoid interrupting the "dialogue" by clapping, they used forceful hand signals to express their agreement.

...

The protesters have been criticised for not having an agenda. But this misses the point of protest movements. They are an expression of frustration with the electoral process. They are an alarm.

...

On one level, today's protesters are asking for little: A chance to use their skills, the right to decent work at decent pay, a fairer economy and society. Their hope is evolutionary, not revolutionary. But, on another level, they are asking for a great deal: A democracy where people, not dollars, matter, and a market economy that delivers on what it is supposed to do.

The two are related: As we have seen, unfettered markets lead to economic and political crises. Markets work the way they should only when they operate within a framework of appropriate government regulations; and that framework can be erected only in a democracy that reflects the general interest - not the interests of the 1%. The best government that money can buy is no longer good enough.

Amen, brother. And how about Stephen King in Florida a few months back:

#OWS is about speaking truth to power. If markets are not regulated properly, if the disparity between rich and everybody else gets too great, if the wealthy seek only to protect their own capital and bleed the rest of us, we know historically that empires fall and revolutions arise. For example, the American Revolution.

So, leaving aside a noble sense of civics: will greed or self-preservation win out?

Tucking in for a Long Winter

Here's how much I love the young activists at the core of making Occupy Wall Street work:

Winter Time Woes: Occupiers Solve Power Problem

I know there was violence in Oakland (subsequent to earlier police violence). My instinct is that the troublemakers are government or rightwing plants. We've seen as much before, going back to the 1960's in the U.S. and the 1930's in Germany.

In any case, it doesn't discredit the entire movement, it's goals or general innovations in democracy. And with guys like this one inventing their winter power source, I feel a glimmer of hope for this country politically down the line.

Most of all, I'm excited to see where this particular protest goes.

Brutal Coming Attractions

Nice to see the Dems already hitting hard:

No use being namby-pamby anymore not after your leader has been called both Hitler and Mao as well as African, and lies spread like memes that he somehow hates America, apologizes for America or has made us weaker internationally.

No use waiting too late to brand the likely opponent after watching John Kerry take the high road to getting Swiftboated.

This is likely to be a brutal campaign...and you don't bring a knife to a gunfight.

Clowntime is (not quite) Over

Herman Cain is executing a business plan, not running for President. Per Jonathan Chait:

The plan involves Cain raising his profile as a conservative personality, which he can monetize through motivational speaking, book sales, talk shows, and other media. Cain’s selling point is that he’s a black conservative who can capitalize on the sense of white racial victimization that has mushroomed during the Obama era. Accordingly, Cain assures conservatives that they are not racist, as proven by their support for him. Indeed, it is the liberals who are racist, as evidenced by their opposition to Cain.

If Cain were campaigning to be president, the scandal would hurt him. Since he is instead campaigning to boost his profile, it will help him.

Cain is exploiting a loophole which allows a person to declare their candidacy for president, and then attract free media coverage and participate in nationally televised debates simply because the media can’t prove that they’re not really trying to win.

And thus Herman Cain enters that special class of Republican, the Grifter class. He's out there in full-throated competition with Sarah Palin, Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity, Newt Gingrich and the rest competing for the Conservative dollar. And more power to him. Since, barring major catastrophe, the GOP are going to lose the 2012 Presidential Election to President Barack Hussein Obama, why not let the reality TV show run its course.

Just how clownish is Herman Cain? Here's a video covering the life, so far, of his sexual harassment scandal, which I agree will not harm him even if it hasn't ended yet:

As Elvis Costello once sang,

Clowntime is over
Time to take cover
While others just talk and talk
Somebody's watching where the others don't walk
Clowntime is over

Whatever that means, it seems to make particular sense for Mr. Cain...and perhaps the rest of his GOP Presidential wannabes.

Fascism Watch: Voter Suppression

Finally, the mainstream media is starting to notice that the GOP is systematically suppressing voting rights. From today's LA Times:

Early voting was reduced from two weeks to one week. Voting on the Sunday before election day was eliminated. College students face new hurdles if they want to vote away from home. And those who register new voters face the threat of fines for procedural errors, prompting the nonpartisan League of Women Voters to suspend voter registration drives and accuse the Legislature of "reverting to Jim Crow-like tactics."

What is happening in Florida is part of a national trend, as election law has become a fierce partisan battleground. In states where Republicans have taken majority control, they have tightened rules for registering new voters, reduced the time for casting ballots and required voters to show photo identification at the polls. The new restrictions were usually adopted on party-line votes and signed by Republican governors.

During Florida's legislative debate on the new law, a Republican state senator argued that it should not be easy or convenient to vote. Voting "is a hard-fought privilege. This is something people died for," said Sen. Michael Bennett of Bradenton, the chamber's president pro tempore. "Why should we make it easier?"

This is their way of undermining democracy in the U.S. Perhaps they feel only landed gentry - male - should have that right...per the original rules in the Constitution? Back when a slave was only 3/5 of a vote?

Seven states — Alabama, Kansas, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin — voted to require registered voters to show photo identification at the polling place. Democratic governors vetoed such bills in five other states.

The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law estimated that new laws across the nation "could make it significantly harder for more than 5 million eligible voters to cast ballots in 2012." The new restrictions will "fall most heavily on young, minority and low-income voters," the group said.

The Jim Crow Republican Party, with the photo i.d. as poll tax.

If Obama wins this next election, it'll be an even greater victory thanks to these rigs.

Perry the Drunk

Texas Governor Rick Perry was clearly in his cups when he made this speech to Republicans in his quest for their Presidential nomination this past Friday in Manchester, NH:



Yet another disqualification for the Presidency -- at least W had the good sense to be a dry drunk by the time he hit the Oval Office. Although, I'd say his crazy 20% optional Flat Tax plan that he just released and touted -- i.e., a 14% tax drop for the 1% on top of our economy -- is disqualification enough.

And there's a brilliant expose by Matt Taibbi in the new Rolling Stone, "The Best Little Whore in Texas." It turns out Rick Perry is all about favors -- he'll giveaway any government funds you want if you contribute enough money to his campaigns:

But it's an act that should have ended after just a few steps down the rope, when he slipped up in the Orlando debate and told the truth.

Among other attacks that night, Perry was taking criticism for his decision back in 2007 to order all sixth-grade girls in Texas to be inoculated against HPV – specifically, with three shots of Gardasil vaccine, a Merck product that sells for a tidy $120 a shot. Michele Bachmann, who not only hates the move as an intrusive use of state power but probably also because it interferes with God's ability to administer punitive cancers to dabblers in extramarital sex, blasted Perry for delivering such a blatant favor to his corporate buddies at Merck. "We cannot forget that in the midst of this executive order, there is a big drug company that made millions of dollars because of this mandate," she said, pointing out that Perry's former chief of staff was the chief lobbyist for Merck.

Perry's response was telling. "It was a $5,000 contribution that I had received from them," he said. "I raised about $30 million. And if you're saying that I can be bought for $5,000, I'm offended."

The Orlando crowd applauded nervously, not quite grasping what Perry had just said. Had the debate taken place in Austin, however, the crowd would have erupted in knowing laughter. Rick Perry, as any Texan knows, does not roll over for 5,000 measly dollars. He charges a hell of a lot more than that. The price tag varies, of course, depending on the favor. Based on the donations Perry has collected, it costs an average of $39,354 to buy a seat on the board of a state university. Landing a state road project runs about half a million, while creating an entire government commission specifically designed to protect your business interests will run you more than $13 million.

I'm looking forward to the eventual investigation(s). Texas law may somehow allow it, but it's still called graft.

Meow

Looks like some GOoPers can't take the heat...of exposing their ideas in public. First, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor bagged out on a speech about "income inequality" because of admission was not restricted, and now Texas Governor Rick Perry may skip some of the admittedly endless Republican Presidential debates because...he sucks at it.

Mmm, "manly" Republicans...maybe want a little bowl of milk with your Meow Mix?

Warzone Oakland

WTF, Oakland? WTF, Mayor Jean Quan? Last night in Oakland you unleashed the cops on Occupy Oakland and the resultant news is bad news for the powers that be -- as well as for the injured Iraq War vet:

An Iraq war veteran has a fractured skull and brain swelling after allegedly being hit by a police projectile.

Scott Olsen is in a "critical condition" in Highland hospital in Oakland, a hospital spokesman confirmed.

Olsen, 24, suffered the head injury during protests in Oakland on Tuesday evening. More than 15 people were arrested after a crowd gathered to demonstrate against the police operation to clear two Occupy Oakland camps in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

Jay Finneburgh, a photographer who was covering the protest, published pictures of Olsen lying on the ground.

"This poor guy was right behind me when he was hit in the head with a police projectile. He went down hard and did not get up," Finneburgh wrote.

Damning video here:

The irony:

"He survived two tours in Iraq," said Adele Carpenter, a friend of Olsen's and a member of the Civilian Soldier Alliance. "This struggle has high stakes, I really respect the fact that Scott was standing up for what he believes in. He's really passionate about social justice causes."

Olsen appears to be the first serious injury nationwide of the Occupy Wall Street movement that has spread to virtually every major American city -- and several smaller ones -- as millions of people continue to express their rage and disappointment with the country's banking, regulatory and health care systems.

Well, Mayor Quan, I guess the movement can give thanks that you've highlighted their cause with your own police overreaction. It worked to help publicize the movement when a cop pepper-sprayed some young women protesting in NYC, so this should do wonders. If Olsen dies, it's like Kent State May 4, 1970 revisited.

Let's see how you handle the return of the protest tonight.

Sensitive Skin

This is a somewhat self-serving post, as I've been published twice now in my friend's online/print magazine, Sensitive Skin, but it still warrants writing about because the magazine is so damned good.

Described by publisher/editor Bernard "Buddy" Meisler as "Post-beat, pre-apocalyptic art, writing and what-not," the original incarnation was in NYC's Lower East Side beginning 1992, revived a little over a year ago from his current home in Marin County. With a reservoir of good will, contacts and eye for edgy, neo-bohemian literature, art, music and video, there's a wealth of great material in each issue, especially the one just released, Sensitive Skin issue #7.

Aside from an excerpt from my own screenplay, Little Punks, with an inspired-by-true-life story of meeting legendary New York Dolls guitarist/co-founder, Johnny Thunders, there's a brilliant piece on being a Bad Girl by my good friend, Erika Schickel, plus writing by Rob Roberge, Díre McCain, Marguerite Van Cook, Drew Hubner, John S. Hall and City of Strangers, a video by Flame Schon, art by Shalom Neuman and Janice Sloane and music by contemporary composer Mike Fink and Bay Area jazz combo LaMacchia/Myrner/Feiszli.

You can order print copies or just read it online. The magazine maintains an active Facebook page as well, which is a lot of fun. In 2011 there are so many more opportunities for the magazine to go viral than there were in 1992. One can only hope it continues to grow in readership, as I believe it will grow in stature.

And, if there's one piece not to your fancy, there's always another one a click -- or page turn -- away.

Disqualified by Birth

Republican Texas Governor James Richard Perry just disqualified himself from the U.S. Presidency in this Sunday's Parade magazine:

Q. Governor, do you believe that President Barack Obama was born in the United States?

A. I have no reason to think otherwise.

Q. That’s not a definitive, “Yes, I believe he”—

A. Well, I don’t have a definitive answer, because he’s never seen my birth certificate.

Q. But you’ve seen his.

A. I don’t know. Have I?

Q. You don’t believe what’s been released?

A. I don’t know. I had dinner with Donald Trump the other night.

Q. And?

A. That came up.

Q. And he said?

A. He doesn’t think it’s real.

Q. And you said?

A. I don’t have any idea.

It's like a crazy one-act play by Harold Pinter.

So he visits Donald Trump to try and get his donation if not endorsement, hears the Birther nonsense from el topo and parrots it back to a family magazine reporter.

Du-oh!

When even Karl Rove says you're wrong to join the nutbags in trying to delegitimize Obama that way, you're in trouble.

When you bring up that canard within six months of the President presenting his birth certificate and then taking out Bin Laden later that week, you're disqualified for Commander-in-Chief.

It's a judgement thing, Rick.

Check, Please

President Barack Hussein Obama keeps another promise and ends the Iraq War for good. Yes, while it does feel a bit like Groundhog's Day (didn't we already announce we were pulling out...although still leaving 50,000 troops) it's still ending Dick Cheney, George Bush and Donald Rumsfeld's war, nine years later.

He's actually keeping George Bush's promise but, sure enough, no Republican can let on that he's once again proving to be our most able Commander-in-Chief since George H.W. Bush (regardless of what you think of some of the wars he chose to fight, like Panama). Come to think of it, Bush the Senior left Iraq as well.

I'm sure President McCain would still have us there. For the next nine years.

The Ungracious

As seemed inevitable with the rising fortunes of the NATO-backed Libyan rebels, Muammar Qaddafi has been found hiding in a drainage pipe and executed with the same response to his call for mercy that he gave so many others, both Libyans and Lockerbee victims, as well as others due to his support for terrorist activities around the world. The guy ruled for four decades, from the age of 27 when he was the good guy overthrowing the assholes, but he has long since been a bad man, who got what he deserved.

Good riddance and congrats to the Libyan people on their new opportunity for a just, democratic, inclusive society. Now don't screw it up.

The response by politicians in the U.S. has been predictable. Obama did not crow, but urged responsibility; politicians of both parties took the opportunity to pontificate at various lengths; some Dems thanked the President for his leadership, at 180 degree odds with the Cheney/Rumsfeld/Bush Administration way of doing things (only $2 billion not $3 trillion, lead from behind by making good partnership not taking over and huffing/puffing our way to alienating our allies, not a single U.S. soldier killed compared to 4,478 in Iraq alone); and almost no GOoPers had the graciousness to thank or congratulate or even acknowledge that Obama provided the right decisions to support this effort at the crucial moment when a massacre was about to happen. It's not right for every situation, but this was the time to "Lead from Behind."

Least gracious of all -- and, perhaps, damaging to his rosy political prospects -- was freshman Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), whose statement was so douchey he had to walk it back a few hours later:

“Today’s not a day to point fingers,” the right-wing Florida senator said. “I’m glad it’s all working out. Ultimately this is about the freedom and liberty of the Libyan people. But let’s give credit where credit is due: it’s the French and the British that led in this fight, and probably even led on the strike that led to Gadhafi’s capture, and, or, you know, to his death.

“So, that’s the first thing. The second thing is, you know, I criticize the president, for, he did the right things, he just took too long to do it and didn’t do enough of it.”

I would say in response, "So much for your Vice Presidential chances, assbag." The President won. Your approach wasn't even tested...because a better man than you made the right decision. A guy who understands gratitude.

Hilarious to see a GOoPer praising the French nine years after the entire Republican Party vilified them for not joining in on the Iraq debacle, even renaming french fries to "freedom fries" in the Capitol cafeteria. Doh.

Rubio picked a bad day for bad PR, because he got the double whammy, making both less likely to be forgotten. It seems he lied -- or was misinformed and spread that misinformation -- about when his parents came to the U.S. from Cuba. By 2 1/2 years. They weren't driven out by Castro...they left before he came to power.

Who's the one-termer now?

Debilitating Condescension

This is why Texas Gov. Rick Perry is not going to win the 2012 GOP Presidential nomination:

The patrician doms the sheriff. CEO to SVP Sales, Western Division.

Perry not looking dumb so much as weak.

Checkmitt!

Send in the Clowns

It's Mitt's to lose. Rick is shrinking next to him, the size difference, better hair (for the first time, Rick looks like he's wearing a toup), Herman Cain is entertaining and running for Secretary of Commerce, Michelle Bachmann is disappearing, Newt and Rick are hanging in by dint of experienced stubbornness, Ron Paul will always have a seat at the Primary table, who knows what speaking spot the Party Elders give him at the Convention.

The idea of Obama running against Mitt Romney for ten months is hilarious when you think about it. Presidential elections are, in large part, for who you want to see on TV for four years. The lead role in the biggest serial of all. I'll be shocked if Mitt doesn't wear out his welcome by May.

He holds his own here, but oh that smiling scold:

Astonishing how little John Huntsman has mattered. It's not that he's too left, it's that he was spectral, a ghost of a candidate, does not bode well for 2016 for him. He even disappeared tonight altogether, not at the debate. Goodbye.

Watch Perry flop so quickly, even with $17 million in his Q3 haul, is more gratifying than I ever expected. Lots of hat.

Steel Carnage

A month or so ago I was very moved by the Senna documentary, which now seems like a too-timely release with the death of two-time Indy winner Dan Wheldon at the Las Vegas Speedway on Sunday. It's a spectacular tragedy from afar -- Real Steel, as it were, Twisted Metal. Fifteen cars and one championship driver killed.

One can only imagine the horror of being in this crash, whether you survived, were injured, or, for poor Dan, killed. It brings up all sort of questions, philosophical and regulatory. It's the thing that makes you remember that racing cars at high speeds is exceedingly dangerous, that's why there's a premium paid for those that are good at it. It's the thing you usually forget -- and want to forget -- when you're watching a race.

The crazy thing about this one is the footage captured during the event and played after, replaying it from so many different angles. Like a videogame, but real and deadly:

At times it looks like a 3D animated reconstruction. I'll bet it'll be studied for movement, to understand what happened and how to prevent these kinds of accidents in the future...and to for some sort of special effects extravaganza to come, someday not so far away, to a multiplex near you.

Mechanized death.

Occupy Goes Global

Another great American export, from the people. All this past weekend, all over the world.

$9.99

Herman Cain, self-made Godfather Pizza CEO, has never held national office but he is now leading in new GOP polls for their Presidential nomination. Is he just this week's Not-Mitt or a force to be, eventually, reckoned with?

His style is affable and he seems to believe what he says even when, as he's also said, he has no evidence to back it up. Key to his appeal is the simplicity of his message, something every good CEO learns to craft and repeat...endlessly.

He's the 9-9-9 guy. 9% income tax, 9% national sales tax, 9% corporate tax. Yep, flat and regressive. You make less than $120k/year, you pay more taxes.

He says he "didn't get it off a pizza box" when Jon Huntsman suggested that was the source. In fact, it may come from the videogame, Sim City.

He'd be a coup for the GOP, a black candidate to run against Obama, insulating them from charges of racism, maybe worth it if the economy picks up and Obama starts to look hard to beat. Take a look at the guy -- even when he's wrong, he's affable:

After all...who doesn't like pizza?

Good Week for iPhone

Despite the loss of Steve Jobs, it's turning out to be a good week for the iPhone, with the 4s breaking sales records and bringing the magic:

Android phones seem to come out every Tuesday at 3:45 p.m. Apple updates iOS and the iPhone only once a year. So Apple had a lot of catching up to do, even some leapfrogging. There are some rough spots here and there; for example, every now and then the 4S’s camera app gets stuck on its startup screen. And while the battery still gets you through one full day, standby time is shorter than before (200 hours versus 300). But over all, Apple has done an excellent job.

The question isn’t what’s in a name — it’s what’s in a phone. And the answer is: “A lot of amazing technology. And some of it feels like magic.”

One could argue that Jobs' death adds to the marketing as well. In addition, it was an exceptionally bad day for the usually reliable, if not-so-magical Blackberry:

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion has been posting updates on its U.S. site since Monday, when service outages were reported in Europe, India, Africa, the Middle East and throughout Latin America — but not here in the States. Well, that’s changed as of today, when the “core switch failure within RIM’s infrastructure” has begun affecting U.S. customers, who are experiencing messaging and browsing delays owing to a massive backup in data.

What makes the iPhone the big winner? It's Siri:

The blind woman at the end seals the sell.

The future is here.

The Incredible Shrinking Rick Perry

Not only has he been displaced as a leading candidate for the GOP Presidential nomination by Herman Cain, he's getting less than lackluster reviews for his debate performance and has topped it off post-debate by forgetting in which century we had our Revolutionary War.

Off by two.

BP

“There’s no shrimp,” explained Grant Bundy, 38. The dock should smell like a place where 10,000 pounds of shrimp a day are bought off the boats. Not this year. In all of September, Bundy’s Seafood bought around 41,000 pounds.

White shrimp season began in late August, and two months in, the shrimpers here say it is a bad one, if not the worst in memory. It is bad not just in spots but all over southeastern Louisiana, said Jules Nunez, 78, calling it the worst season he had seen since he began shrimping in 1950. Some fishermen said their catches were off by 80 percent or more.

“A lot of people say it’s this, it’s that, it’s too hot, it’s too cold, it’s BP,” Mr. Nunez said. “We just don’t know.”

We all know.

BBQ'd

It turns out Rick Perry's biggest problem in the upcoming North Carolina Republican Primary isn't Mitt Romney, Herman Cain or his educational support of the kids of illegal immigrants in Texas. It's that he's on record as having dissed North Carolina barbecue. In a big way:

Nineteen years ago, at the 1992 Republican National Convention, a barbecue taste-off pitted beef tenderloin from Joe Allen's Bar-B-Que of Abilene, Texas, against pulled pork from Kings Restaurant in Kinston, N.C. Perry, then the agriculture commissioner of Texas, sampled the Carolina barbecue and declared, "I've had road kill that tasted better than that."

...

Last month, a new generation of News & Observer reporters stumbled on the quote in the Reeds' book and thrust it back into the political limelight, announcing to the world that Perry was on record as saying that North Carolina barbecue tastes worse than road kill.

The reaction in North Carolina was swift. Newspaper columnists declared Perry unfit for office and demanded a retraction. A representative of the Smithfield's Chicken N' Bar-B-Q chain mailed Perry 2 pounds of pork barbecue and an open letter encouraging him to "revisit your experience with Eastern North Carolina Bar-B-Q and … rectify your statement."

...

So far, there has been no official response from the Perry campaign, and that doesn't bode well for his electoral prospects. Just ask Rufus Edmisten, who ran for governor of North Carolina in 1984. Late in the campaign, after eating barbecue at rallies three times a day for almost a year, he broke down at a public feed in Raleigh. "We haven't had any of the damnable barbecue," he proclaimed. "I've eaten enough barbecue. I am not going to eat any more!" The quote ran in local newspapers, and Edmisten lost by almost 200,000 votes.

When asked to comment on Perry's chance to recover from his similar gaffe, Edmisten told the Raleigh News & Observer: "He's had it. He's done. He's beef toast."

As a man who considers BBQ to be his "other woman," I'd have to agree with North Carolina. Surely in Austin Rick must take that half hour drive out to old Saltlick to eat in the big building -- feed, really, with all the barbecue brisket, ribs, chicken and pork that fills those long tables and hungry bellies.

Here in Los Angeles I recommend the incredible Memphis style of JR's Barbecue at 3055 S. La Cienaga, a freestanding one-story building on the West side of the road before you hit Target. It's the most fun -- like most BBQ places -- to go with a group of six or more. Then you can order either the Small Tray or Large Tray, and the small one is good for up to eight people:

Slab Pork Ribs

1/2 Slab Beef Ribs

1/2 Pound Sliced Beef

1/2 Pound Beef Links

1/2 Chicken

1 Pound (!) Rib Tips

Pint Baked Beans

Pint Salad or Cole Slaw

6 Rolls

Have it with a Tiger Woods and finish with either the Sock-It-To-Me Cake or the 7up Cake. Or one of the seven other delicious desserts.

I'm with North Carolina. Road kill? Really? But I'm not offended.

Unless Gov. Perry disses JR's.

More on the Good Guys

Jimmy Breslin, 10 years into retirement, comes out to cover #occupywallstreet:

This was the start of a moving day that has not been seen in this city in a great many years, back when the unions were large and nasty to those who opposed the war in Vietnam back in the '60s and '70s.

Now yesterday, they joined hands with the young, and people were mostly orderly and all for the idea that the troops be pulled out of Afghanistan and that we need jobs for the young unemployed around here.

They were angry, and they shouted about the injustice of a tiny percentage of the rich getting richer, while the middle class endures foreclosures, dwindling savings and sudden losses in employment with the jobs going to places like China.

Naomi Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine, on people finally standing up after the banks destroyed the economy in 2008:

Naomi Klein: Occupy Wall Street Oct. 5th Demo from The New Significance on Vimeo.

Ever wonder why we got into this crisis?

Twenty golden years of consolidation and concentration of ownership.

The 1%.

The King is Dead

Has there ever been a more beloved CEO than Steve Jobs? He earned it the hard way, by losing the wildly successful company he founded in his youth, watching it slide down into the depths, then getting bought back in and taking it to greater glories than it had ever achieved.

I learned about his death on one of his devices. I'm writing this on another, in his browser. My fingers have touched his products more than any other single company's products. Not even Toyota. And even the Prius looks like an iCar.

56, I mean, what a life. What a profound impact on human learning, on industrial design, on the consumption of media.

I think what remains to be seen is if Apple ever creates another revolutionary product. The Mac, the Mac notebook, the iPhone, the iPad. (Let alone Pixar.) Is the announcement of the iPhone 4S the day before his passing a harbinger of more evolution -- but no revolution -- to come?

I certainly hope not. And by the note on the Apple website (after you click on the photo of Steve in a layout I wonder if he approved), they will be working to make his spirit the permanent spirit of the company.

Per Max Weber, any organization with veer from its original purpose over time, sometimes in betrayal of its original goals and function. Apple will definitely be different after Steve Jobs, but what it becomes may be something new and what we need for the post-Steve Jobs times. If the apple has many seeds, and those seeds bear fruit.

From the one, many?

Who are the 99%?

Great post by Ezra Klein on this movement, including:

These are not rants against the system. They’re not anarchist manifestos. They’re not calls for a revolution. They’re small stories of people who played by the rules, did what they were told, and now have nothing to show for it. Or, worse, they have tens of thousands in debt to show for it.

...

But this is why I’m taking Occupy Wall Street -- or, perhaps more specifically, the ‘We Are The 99 Percent’ movement -- seriously. There are a lot of people who are getting an unusually raw deal right now. There is a small group of people who are getting an unusually good deal right now. That doesn’t sound to me like a stable equilibrium.

The organizers of Occupy Wall Street are fighting to upend the system. But what gives their movement the potential for power and potency is the masses who just want the system to work the way they were promised it would work. It’s not that 99 percent of Americans are really struggling. It’s not that 99 percent of Americans want a revolution. It’s that 99 percent of Americans sense that the fundamental bargain of our economy -- work hard, play by the rules, get ahead -- has been broken, and they want to see it restored.

Here's a rapidly growing Tumblr with faces and messages from the 99%.

Of us.

Wild Monday Roundup

Amanda Knox should never have been tried in the first place, and the prosecution's allegation of motive was Medieval and misogynistic, literally something out of a 14th Century witch trial. I'm sure it must be as hard to believe that she's finally free after nearly four years - 20% of her life -- but the relief must be epic as well. Great thanks to the Italian legal system, where the appeal is something more of a do-over than here in the U.S. Of course, in Rick Perry's Texas, she'd be executed already:

As one of the prosecutors in the case, Manuela Comodi, no friend of Knox, implied last week in his remarks: were Knox being tried in the United States, she might well be on her way to an execution. The case of Troy Davis, killed by the state of Georgia last month despite the fact that most of the witnesses in his case later recanted their testimony, should linger as the Knox saga is reviewed.

Speaking of Gov. Perry, I don't think the news about the name of the ranch leased by his family means that he's a racist. As our President would say, it's a distracting sideshow. But it does reinforce my prediction that an Obama-Perry duel would look very much like the aged battle for Abolition, and would expect to see rhetoric surrounding the candidates on all sides that mirrored that. I do like the discussion of language that's sprung up around this, like a rather unusual and admirably frank discussion today on The View.

What I do think is that he's a mindless corporatist who, like Bush from Texas before him, thinks the government treasuries are meant for the rich. Which takes us to Wall Street where a very articulate young man, Jesse LaGreca, makes the #occupywallstreet viral video of the day as he takes down Fox News to its face and lays out the real issues:

For example, the ultra-Right Koch Brothers seem to be getting away with having violated the Iran trading embargo. Because they can? Isn't that...treason?

And want to see the opposite of the guy in the above video? Isn't rich, aggrieved, entitled Hank Williams, Jr., born lucky like the Koch Bros albeit with less talent, just the Id of their rightwing Super-Ego:

Ha ha ha his theme song was cut from Monday Night Football tonight and hopefully forever.

Turn, tide, turn.

99%

Gotta love #occupywallstreet as the anti-Tea Party protest with real truth behind it -- that an unbridled Wall Street serving the 1% at the top got us into the current financial mess and they have paid no real price for it, not one that counts. Not one that will keep them from doing this again.

This weekend it spread to other cities and also intensified in NYC, with 700 arrests at the Brooklyn Bridge. People of all ages are represented and one has to wonder if the cops really want to be doing this where there's real crime going on all the time in NYC, and not just in the those towers being protested. Not to mention that those cops are the ones who get hurt when those big money-backed Republicans like those in Wisconsin start taking away public union rights. And how come 700 people have been arrested for protesting, yet not one indictment has been handed down to the high finance crooks themselves.

In the age of online social media, there is a huge amount to look at, to learn from, to help connect with the organizing. The Facebook page, the Twitter handle, the Tumblr. Here's some great pics at The Atlantic showing the sweep of the protest. Help pay the movement's media costs here.

Most importantly, the grievances. Peaceful and damning. We have yet to see if it lasts or fizzles, if it leads to change or fractures, if the authorities start sending in undercover thugs to turn things violent as they did regularly in the 1960's and the repressive Middle East regimes have done during Arab Spring, to discredit the movement.

If nothing else, it does the heart good to see there are protesters in America who aren't carrying posters of President Obama with a black toothbrush mustache.