Scott Olsen, marine wounded by Oakland police at OWS protest, is in ‘critical condition’

Scott Olsen, marine wounded by Oakland police at OWS protest, is in ‘critical condition’

In a video published early Thursday morning, ex-Marine Scott Olsen, the 24-year-old who suffered a fractured skull in Oakland on Tuesday night and is currently in “critical condition,” is seen standing peacefully in front of a police barricade next to a uniformed sailor just moments before officers deployed chemical agents to disperse the crowd.

While the video does not show what hit Olsen, it suggests that he was shot in the head by a tear gas canister at near point-blank range.  Olsen did not appear to be provoking officers, who’d repeatedly announced their intent to disperse what they’d declared an “unlawful assembly.” Others speculated that he was hit by a beanbag round fired from a shotgun.

Either way, the aftermath of the blow he sustained was severe. Photos of the scene are grisly and not for the squeamish.

He’s now sedated and suffering from brain swelling. Doctors say Olsen is in “critical condition” and could die of his injury.

The incident has sparked a wave of outrage among 99 Percent protesters, and even among other Marines, and on Wednesday night Current TV news host Keith Olbermann called for Oakland’s mayor to fire the police chief or resign. Vigils in solidarity with Oakland were held in numerous cities last night, with another wave planned in even more cities for later tonight.

Protesters were marching in response to a police action early Tuesday morning to clear out a camp demonstrators had been occupying for weeks, in solidarity with the protest that’s occupied a park near Wall Street for more than a month. Police claimed that some people threw paint and bottles at them, so they spent most of the night trying to disperse them at multiple spots around downtown. More than 100 people were arrested in the melee.

An update on Olsen’s condition is expected later this morning.

Video at the link. Oakland Mayor Jean Quan should fire the city’s acting police chief after officers used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse “Occupy Oakland” protesters. This is America not Egypt or Libya.

Anti-American Conservative Provocateur James O'Keefe is Lying About Medicaid Again

Anti-American Conservative Provocateur James O'Keefe is Lying About Medicaid Again

James O'Keefe is once again making completely false claims about undercover videos of Medicaid employees, saying that he has uncovered evidence of Medicaid fraud. But yet again, he has simply demonstrated that his tactics are fundamentally dishonest.

The latest video shows two women, identified as Medicaid workers in Maine, counseling a man who calls himself "Ted Ceanneidigh" (get it?), who claims to be an Irish fisherman, and who says he imports pharmaceuticals on a boat called The Bob Marley. O'Keefe claims that a Medicaid worker "coaches [Ted] by saying, 'If you can't prove income, you don't have income,'" which O'Keefe claims is evidence of Medicaid fraud and "government workers willing to aid people with criminal backgrounds."

In fact, the woman O'Keefe has accused of helping hide income and assets simply advised an applicant that he doesn't have to declare income if he doesn't earn any income, and she recruited a more senior colleague to answer more complex questions about income eligibility. That counselor, who identifies herself as Diane, aggressively questioned "Ted" about his sources of income and told him that he will be required to report that he has access to an account that is in his parents' name.

It's an astonishing display of hubris that O'Keefe is promoting this video as proof of Medicaid fraud.

On the video, O'Keefe's undercover reporter claimed that he works for his parents' fishing business on what he described as a "barter system." The so-called fisherman said his work includes importing pharmaceuticals. "Ted" told a woman identified as a Medicaid worker that he has access to the bank account for the family business, where he deposits the money he earns. But according to "Ted," he makes no income:

    [11:42] It's all cash and precious metals, and so none of this is declared, and once it gets into [his parents'] accounts, what they do with it -- what they file -- is on them and their business. But as far as I'm concerned, I don't have an income. They just help me out. I do have my name -- my name is on their account. So I can pull money from their account, but other than that.

At this point, the Medicaid worker encouraged "Ted" to look into private insurance, but if that is not an option, he could look into Medicaid. She made clear to "Ted" that the only thing she can do -- given the fact that he is not eligible for Medicaid based on age or disability -- would be to put him on a waiting list. "Ted" asked again about income:

    [19:29] MEDICAID WORKER: If you have income, we need proof of income.

    TED: Proof?

    MEDICAID WORKER: Yeah, like pay stubs or --

    TED: But I don't get any.

    MEDICAID WORKER: If you don't have --

    TED: I don't --

    MEDICAID WORKER: If you don't --

    TED: See, that's the thing I'm concerned about, because it's all a cash business and --

    MEDICAID WORKER: If you don't have proof of income, then you have no income.

At no point in the video did "Ted" fill out an application for or receive any Medicaid benefits. In fact, he declined to do so, claiming not to have ID. When the Medicaid worker offered "Ted" an application to fill out and submit, he asked her to once again go over the eligibility requirements. At this point, the Medicaid worker recruited another woman, identified later as "the senior person" whom she thinks is more qualified to answer "Ted's" questions about what income he would have to declare.

Recall at this point that no evidence of Medicaid fraud or willingness to aid in Medicaid fraud has been demonstrated. Recall as well as the entire point of the exercise has been to illustrate government workers helping criminals hide income and assets to perpetrate Medicaid fraud.

Keep that in mind as a Medicaid worker named Diane makes very clear to "Ted" that income he earns and assets he claims to have access to must be declared [starting around the 28 minute mark]:

    And then we have to have verification if you have any type of income.

Diane asked "Ted" whether he is self-employed. Diane asked "Ted" who gives him money. Diane told "Ted" that she would need a letter from his parents verifying exactly how much money they provide him with, and: "They need to sign it, and they need to put a phone number where we can call them to verify that they did actually write the statement."

Again: this is supposed to be an expose in government workers helping a criminal hide assets from the government in a giant Medicaid fraud racket.

Like his Anti-American cohorts - conservative pundits on Fox and Am radio - O'Keefe is lucky the standards for libel and slander are so impossibly high in the US legal system. If they were not O'Keffe would be up to his ears paying off the legal claims of people and organizations he has lied and bamboozled. O'Keefe has become the face of the Anti-American conservative movement. he possesses all of the perverse values conservatives have become known for.

Why it’s safe to ignore Republican criticism of Obama’s policy in Iraq.

Crisis Pregnancy Centers Say The Darndest Things

Herman Cain Flips Flops and Flips On a Woman's Right to Have Dominion Over Her Own Body

Herman Cain Flips Flops and Flips On a Woman's Right to Have Dominion Over Her Own Body

Here we go again with Herman Cain and his ever-evolving abortion stance. First, in February, 2011, he says as President, he'd sign legislation protecting the right of the unborn.

    I am a firm believer in the dignity of life and support a ban on partial birth abortion. If I were president, I would sign legislation that would protect the sanctity of life.

And on October 7, he says at the Values Voters Summit (video here):

    So I happen to believe that the Founding Fathers put it in that order— life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness—for a reason. You can pursue happiness all you want to, as long as you don’t tread on somebody else’s liberty....You can pursue liberty all you want to, as long as you don’t tread on somebody else’s life. And that includes the life of the unborn.”

[More...]

And on October 16, he begins to bob and weave, when he tells David Gregory on Meet the Press:

    MR. GREGORY: What about abortion? You want to overturn Roe v. Wade. Could you support or condone abortion under any exceptions at all?

    MR. CAIN: I believe in life from conception, and I do not agree with abortion under any circumstances.

    MR. GREGORY: Exceptions for rape and incest?

    MR. CAIN: Not for rape and incest because...

    MR. GREGORY: What about life of the mother?

    MR. CAIN: Because if you look at, you look at rape and incest, the, the percentage of those instances is so miniscule that there are other options. If it's the life of the mother, that family's going to have to make that decision.

    MR. GREGORY: Mm-hmm. But you can--would you condone abortion if the life of the mother were...

    MR. CAIN: That family is going to have to make that...

    MR. GREGORY: You won't render a judgment on that.

    MR. CAIN: That family is going to have to make that decision.

Then he steps in it, as far as conservatives are concerned. On October 19, he tells Piers Morgan on CNN, it's not the President's job to decide whether abortion is legal.

    No, it comes down to is, it’s not the government’s role — or anybody else’s role — to make that decision. Secondly, if you look at the statistical incidents, you’re not talking about that big a number. So what I’m saying is, it ultimately gets down to a choice that that family or that mother has to make. Not me as president. Not some politician. Not a bureaucrat. It gets down to that family. And whatever they decide, they decide. I shouldn’t try to tell them what decision to make for such a sensitive decision....The government shouldn’t be trying to tell people everything to do, especially when it comes to a social decision that they need to make. ..............more at the link.

What a rosy future American women will have with a Cain presidency. Maybe he'll have federal marshals come to your home and have damn sure you carry that pregnancy to term or maybe he won't. It all depends on what mood he's in or what crowd he is trying to please. On the other hand you can bet that Rick Perry will use millions in tax payer dollars for the strong arm of the federal government to have dominion over every woman's uterus. Hey, isn't that what the Founders wanted for a tyrannical government to make personal decisions for women because they're not bright enough to make those decisions for themselves.

Goodbye National Treasures, Ron Paul Calls For Federal Public Lands To Be ‘Sold Off To Private Owners’

Goodbye National Treasures, Ron Paul Calls For Federal Public Lands To Be ‘Sold Off To Private Owners’

During a forum in Las Vegas Wednesday, Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) told the Republican audience he would like to see federal public lands in Nevada privatized.

Speaking at the Western Republican Leadership Conference, Paul declared that Nevada, which has a large percentage of federally-owned public lands, ought to become more like Texas, where “private owners” have “developed all the natural resources.” Paul went on to say “how wonderful it would be if land will be or should be returned to the states and then for the best parts sold off to private owners”:

    PAUL: Take a look at the state of Nevada. Do the people own the property in Nevada? No. Who’s the biggest landowner? It’s the federal government. I would like to see the development of this state the way that Texas had the privilege of developing. Before we went in the Union, it was owned entirely by private owners and it has developed all the natural resources, a very big state. So you can imagine how wonderful it would be if land will be or should be returned to the states and then for the best parts sold off to private owners.

Paul’s remarks fall in line with the attacks on public lands from conservative lawmakers and corporate front groups. For instance, Rep. Rob Bishop (R-UT) has been waging war on public lands from his helm as chairman of the House Resources Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands, while the Koch Brothers have funded pro-oil events across the West.

For more information, read Center for American Progress President John Podesta’s article on defending public lands or a report from CAP’s public lands team on how public land conservation creates jobs.

Good old Ron is as wacky as ever. A libertarian who has spent most of his adult life in Congress getting rich off the people. he is a great example for American children. he has managed to amass have a super comfortable life without ever studying as issue or coming out with a well thought out solution. All of Ron's answers to everything can be found in a secret compartment he keeps where the sun never shines and he reaches up in there to pull out wacko solutions on demand. he hates government, so he does his best to make sure we have bad government, and hey kids he get about $174,00.00 a year for that little magic trick. 

How Christian Fundamentalists Disempower Themselves and Help Empower the Top 1% to Exploit the 99%

How Christian Fundamentalism Helped Empower the Top 1% to Exploit the 99%

As the Occupy Wall street movement spreads across the country and the world, we must bring attention to the enablers of the top 1 percent exploiting the 99. Fundamentalist religion made this exploitation possible.

Evangelical fundamentalism helped empower the top 1 percent. Note I didn't say religion per se, but religious fundamentalism.

Why? Because without the fundamentalists and their "values" issues, many in the lower 99 percent could not have been convinced to vote against their (our) economic self-interest; in other words, vote for Republicans who only serve billionaires.

Wall Street is a great target for long-overdue protest, but so are the centers of religious power that are the gatekeepers of Republican Party "values" voters that make the continuing economic exploitation possible.

Fundamentalist religion -- evangelical and Roman Catholic alike -- has delegitimized the US government and thus undercut its ability to tax, spend and regulate.

The fundamentalists have replaced economic and political justice with a bogus (and hate-driven) "morality" litmus tests of spurious red herring "issues" from abortion to school prayer and gay rights. The result has been that the masses of lower middle-class and poor Americans who should be voting for Democrats and thus their own economic interests, have been persuaded to vote against their own class and self interest.

This trick of political sleight of hand has been achieved by this process:    

    Declare the US government agents of evil because "the government" has allowed legal abortion, gay rights, etc.
    Declare that therefore "government is the problem," not the solution.
    The government is the source of all evwww.amazon.com/Sex-Mom-God-Strange-Politics/dp/0306819287/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0il, thus anyone the government wants to regulate is being picked on by satanic forces. The US government is always the bad guy.
    Good, God-fearing folks will always vote for less government and less regulation because "the government" is evil.
    So unregulated corporations, banks and Wall Street are always right and represent "freedom" while government is always wrong and represents "tyranny."

Like most evangelical/Roman Catholic fundamentalist movements in history, from the Bay State colonies to the Spanish Inquisition, the American Religious Right of today advocates the fusion of state power and religion through the reestablishment of the "Christian America" idea of "American Exceptionalism" (i.e., a nation "chosen" by God), the form of government adopted by the Puritans' successors during the age of early American colonialism.

Thus the division between "real Americans" and the rest of us is the "saved" and "lost" paradigm of theological correctness applied to politics. Thus President Obama isn't a real American, or even a born American, he's "Other," a Muslim, an outsider, and above all not "one of us."

In other words you're not just wrong, but evil if you disagree with the Elect over abortion, or for that matter peace in the Middle East because you're "not supporting Israel."

"Bring America back to the Bible" is really no more subtle than the claim of the Iranian Mullahs to rule in "God's name" so that Iran too can come back to God. And if you can get Americans to worry about the Bible and not fairness and justice, then you have handed a perpetual victory to Goldman Sachs and company.

How Did We Get Here?

The unstated agreement went like this: Republicans will pander to the Religious Right on the social issues -- abortion, gay rights, prayer in schools, creationism in textbooks, and not so subtly the endorsement of religious schools to help white evangelicals and Roman Catholics avoid integration -- as long as the Religious Right turned a blind eye to the fact that the Republican Party would sell the soul of the country to corporate America, a country-within-a-country where 1 percent of the population have more wealth than the 99 percent.

Deference to religion masquerading as politics must end, now.

Religion masquerading as politics is not true religion or politics-- it is a theocracy-in-waiting. This charade of power grabs in God's name needs to be exposed, and destroyed.

Democracy will not survive the continuing dirty combination of theocracy and oligarchy. That's where we're headed: bankers running the world backed by preachers who don't care about God but care about power.

The timely destruction of the economic elites and their religious facilitators begins by calling fundamentalist/evangelical/Roman Catholic "religion" what it is: a political grab for power based on literal madness of the sort that makes many terrified of modernity, truth, science and facts and leads them to deny evolution and global warming while believing that Jesus will come back any day now.

There are obviously lots of decent hard working Americans who call themselves Christians. Most of them live physically and spiritually in the 21st century. They don't let their faith get in the way of behaving like rational adults. The fair and decent free market vision they have is largely ignored. They are this generation's silent majority. While the loony right-wing Christianists get first priority on their backwards agenda.

Private Wall Street Companies Caused The Financial Crisis — Not Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Or The Community Reinvestment Act

After Confusing Himself, Plutocrat Herman Cain Decides That Rape Victims Should Be Forced To Carry Pregnancies To Term

Record number of deportations still not enough for anti-immigration zealots
The Obama administration kicked out 400,000 people this year, satisfying no one and winning no support for reform

Iraq Veteran Questions NYPD Violence Against OWC

Iraq Veteran Questions NYPD Violence Against OWC

Veteran Protests Heavy-Handed Police Tactics In NYC: ‘This Is Not A Warzone!’ | On Saturday, Occupy Wall Street demonstrators occupied Times Squares when thousands flooded the iconic location to protest economic inequities. After a number of demonstrators refused to leave the streets there, police responded with heavy-handed tactics to arrest them. Now, video has emerged of an apparent U.S. military veteran speaking out against these police tactics. The man, who identified himself as Sgt. Shamar Thomas, explained that he spent fourteen months in Iraq and that his parents served in the military as well. “This is not a warzone. It doesn’t make you tough to hurt these people!” protested Thomas to police officers. “There is no honor in that.” The crowd gave the man a hearty applause. Watch it:

Why Does Herman Cain Hate America - Cain’s Sales Tax Would Hurt Consumer Spending ’For Some Years’

Cain’s Sales Tax Would Hurt Consumer Spending ’For Some Years’

Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain’s plan to create a national sales tax would hurt retailers, threaten economic growth and shift the tax burden onto the middle class and poor, tax experts and business groups said.

Cain’s so-called 9-9-9 plan, which would replace the current tax code with a system of three separate taxes of 9 percent each, has boosted his popularity among voters. The former chief executive officer of Godfather’s Pizza has surged in polls in recent weeks, and a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll released this week put him in the lead.

Tax experts and business groups interviewed yesterday don’t like his tax plan as much as voters. They said it would shift the burden to middle-income and poor families and would hurt sales across the economy, at least in the short term.

“There will be a noticeable decline in consumer spending for some years,” said Rachelle Bernstein, vice president of the National Retail Federation, based in Washington, in an interview. “We know that that has an impact on consumer spending and GDP.”

Consumer spending accounts for about 70 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product.

Cain has proposed a 9 percent sales tax on all goods and services, another 9 percent on personal income and the third on corporate gross income. During the debate in New Hampshire sponsored by Bloomberg News and the Washington Post on Oct. 11, Cain said the proposal is his top policy goal.

Expanding Tax Base

“It expands the base,” he said during the debate. “When you expand the base, we can arrive at the lowest possible rate, which is 9-9-9.”

That expansion means that long-standing tax breaks, such as the mortgage interest deduction and the exclusion from income of employer-sponsored health insurance, probably would vanish.

Although Cain hasn’t released extensive details of his plan, it also would probably add a sales tax on many products and services, such as new homes, financial transactions and even doctor visits. Several business and trade groups contacted by Bloomberg News declined to comment on the plan because they didn’t want to take a position on the presidential race.

Impact on States

Michael Bird, federal affairs counsel for the National Conference of State Legislatures in Washington, said the sales tax, on top of what state and local governments already levy, could make it difficult for them to adjust their tax rates.

“Would the 9 cents create a ceiling, or would states say, now we have to lower our costs because the cost of goods and services are higher than a lot of people are comfortable with?” Bird asked. “It’s hard to say.”

Robert Dietz, an economist at the National Association of Home Builders, said new homes sales would see a double tax increase. The house itself would be subject to the 9 percent retail sales tax, and then buyers would have to pay tax on the interest on their mortgage, as opposed to now when they can deduct that interest from their income.

“Layering a new tax on top of the sale of a newly constructed home would certainly be bad for the housing market,” he said. Each new home creates the equivalent of three full-time jobs for a year, he said.

Trucking Hit Hard

Small trucking firms and drivers may be hit hard by a sales tax on fuel piled upon already-high excise taxes, such as the 24.4 cent-per-gallon levy on diesel fuel and a surcharge already applied to new heavy-duty vehicles, said Todd Spencer, executive vice president of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, which represents truckers under contract with larger U.S. companies such as Landstar Systems Inc.

Further taxing fuel “may be a hard sell for Mr. Cain at a time when diesel is headed back towards a $4 per gallon average,” Spencer said. “Adding a 9 percent sales tax and a 9 percent VAT (value-added tax) onto the 12 percent federal excise tax truckers already pay on new trucks and trailers would certainly cause them to think twice about buying new equipment.”

“There’s a lot in this plan that’s just kookie,” said Steve Wamhoff, legislative director at Citizens for Tax Justice, pointing out that it doesn’t tax dividends or inheritance at all, but does tax wages. “It makes the tax system much, much, much more regressive than it is today.”

The proposal would hit middle- and low-income people with a larger tax burden because they spend more of their money on food, clothing and household goods and have less left over to save and invest, which wouldn’t be taxed.

Herman and Anti-American right-wing zealot Rupert Murdoch's Fox News "likes" Herman's plan so end of story. Just disregard the facts. If conservatives started likling fact based economics we might actually pull out of this recession, but they don't want that because it doesn't benefit the cult of conservatism.

The 53 Percent Take on the 99 Percent - see photo at top of Anti-American proto-facist Erick Erickson.

But Think Progress takes their analysis a step further, looking into the claims of hardship made by Erickson:

The three jobs Erickson wants you to believe he scrapes by on include occasional paid opinion blogging at RedState.com, a lucrative television contract with CNN, and a radio gig that paid the previous host $165,183 a year…The house Erickson can’t sell? Bibb County, Georgia records reveal that Erickson just bought a new $374,900 house in February of this year, and owns another that, according to an estimate by the website Zillow, might be worth slightly less than the amount he paid for it in 2001. And it’s likely that Erickson’s CNN job alone provides him with a personal driver and covered travel expenses when he needs to appear on the show.

Interestingly, many of the claims made in the We Are the 53% blog echo those made in the We Are the 99 Percent blog: “got laid off”, “slept in my car because I couldn’t afford housing”, “after a mildly successful career, I lost everything in 2009”.

It’s not that the 53 percent people haven’t suffered, these pictures seem to say. It’s that having clawed their way out of crisis, they now see virtue in their suffering. One commenter on Think Progress site summarized the mindset:

Look at me. I ran through a field of bear traps and only had to gnaw off one limb. Builds character. 

Anti-American conservative like Erickson want America and its families to have a race to the bottom to see who can live without a living wage, food and medical care. The prize seems to be you get the title of the toughest wage slave idiot on the planet. You get to be the kind of worker they used to call serfs.