Memo to the Super Rich, your high-paid lobbyists and your no-compromise political puppets whose sole mission is destroying the presidency: Yes, you are succeeding. You’re also killing the economy.
Thanks to your self-destructive ideology, America is now in the second of back-to-back Lost Decades. A new one on the heels of the 2000-2010 Lost Decade where Wall Street lost more than 20% inflation-adjusted. Get it? You guys launched America’s second Lost Decade of 21st century.
Yes, two consecutive job-killing Lost Decades. The first created by Wall Street’s obsessive greed. The new one triggered by the widening wealth gap that’s feeding endless partisan political wars powered by super rich conservatives hellbent on re-establishing the same free-market, trickle-down Reaganomics policies that have been sabotaging America for the last generation.
Unfortunately, the new one gets worse. Why? The coming Lost Decade is a backdrop for a wave of class warfare destined to trigger a historic revolution in American politics, bigger than the ‘29 Crash and Great Depression.
The cavalry has arrived in Lower Manhattan. Representatives from no fewer than 15 of the country's largest labor unions will join the Occupy Wall Street protesters for a mass rally and march today in New York City.
The AFL-CIO, United Auto Workers, and Transit Workers' Union are among the groups expected to stand in solidarity with the hundreds of mostly young men and women who have spent the better part of three weeks sleeping, eating, and organizing from Zuccotti Square.
Their arrival is being touted as a watershed moment for the "Occupy" movement, which has now seen copycat protests spring up across the country. And while the specific demands of the "occupiers" remain wide-ranging, the presence of the unions – implicitly inclined to making more direct demands – may sharpen their focus.
Actually, they have more in common with the tea party movement than the hippie dream, with one key difference: They’re smart enough to recognize the nation’s problems aren’t simply about taxes and the deficit.
They want jobs. They want the generation in power to acknowledge them. They want political change. They want responsibility in a culture that abdicates it. They want a decent future of opportunity.
If that isn’t American, then what is?
Another key difference between today’s kids and their hippie forefathers: They’re willing to gut it out.
The press seems confused. There were signs about Afghanistan, taxes, Wall Street greed, corporate responsibility and just about every pet cause out there. But what some decry as a lack of focus is really about them not getting it: This movement is about money. It’s about wasting money. It’s about greed for money guiding those in power. It’s about the inequitable distribution of money.
Most of all, it’s about process. In a “general assembly” meeting Saturday, Occupy Wall Street came up with its first official document. It is a powerful summation of grievances, not just of the young, but of many Americans: home foreclosures, workers rights, Internet privacy, health care and bailouts.
As we gather together in solidarity to express a feeling of mass injustice, we must not lose sight of what brought us together. We write so that all people who feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world can know that we are your allies.
As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality: that the future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members; that our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their neighbors; that a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power. We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments. We have peaceably assembled here, as is our right, to let these facts be known.
They have taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage.
They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give executives exorbitant bonuses.
They have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the workplace based on age, the color of one's skin, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation.
They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.
They have profited off of the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless nonhuman animals, and actively hide these practices.
They have continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate for better pay and safer working conditions.
They have held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right.
They have consistently outsourced labor and used that outsourcing as leverage to cut workers’ healthcare and pay.
They have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people, with none of the culpability or responsibility.
They have spent millions of dollars on legal teams that look for ways to get them out of contracts in regards to health insurance.
They have sold our privacy as a commodity.
They have used the military and police force to prevent freedom of the press.
They have deliberately declined to recall faulty products endangering lives in pursuit of profit.
They determine economic policy, despite the catastrophic failures their policies have produced and continue to produce.
They have donated large sums of money to politicians supposed to be regulating them.
They continue to block alternate forms of energy to keep us dependent on oil.
They continue to block generic forms of medicine that could save people’s lives in order to protect investments that have already turned a substantive profit.
They have purposely covered up oil spills, accidents, faulty bookkeeping, and inactive ingredients in pursuit of profit.
They purposefully keep people misinformed and fearful through their control of the media.
They have accepted private contracts to murder prisoners even when presented with serious doubts about their guilt.
They have perpetuated colonialism at home and abroad.
They have participated in the torture and murder of innocent civilians overseas.
They continue to create weapons of mass destruction in order to receive government contracts.
Everybody has a piece of advice for the protesters at Occupy Wall Street. They should put their clothes on. They should stop raising their fists. They should fact-check their handwritten signs. They should appoint leaders who can give pithy quotes to reporters. They should get with an electoral program. Nicholas Kristof even offered to help them out with a neat list of demands, in case those holding signs saying “We Are the 99%” just needed to have the unfairness of the carried interest rule explained to them. [...]
It’s not that the demands being suggested by OWS’s volunteer policy advisors in the blogosphere are not worthy ideas. At a time when we desperately need to rein in financial speculation and change the incentives on Wall Street, a financial transactions tax is a terrific policy proposal. Dean Baker has been talking about it for years. The thing is, we on the left don’t have a scarcity of policy ideas. We are positively bursting with them. Create a housing trust fund! A national infrastructure bank! And, yes, sure, eliminate the carried interest loophole so fat cats don’t get a bigger tax break than working people. (Some even have more radical ideas, which are quite sensible too.) But at best, we get a polite hearing for these ideas, which then fade away or are hopelessly watered down. We simply lack the power to put them into practice.
What do the powerless have left to do when the powerful have taken everything else away from them? Protest.
Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable. -- John F. Kennedy
Yes, the revolution is coming. And as you have long been told, it won't be seen on your television (due primarily to corporate media corruption, greed, and fear). It WILL however be Facebooked, Tweeted, blogged, streamed, uploaded, shared, and experienced live in Houston and many cities across the country and even around the world, in the streets by the other 99%, unfiltered by the powers that be.
No television coverage that makes any sense whatsoever to those who mostly watch Dancing With the Stars and/or Fox News ... unless the police again try to provoke civil disobedience into violent confrontation, like they did in New York and like they have done in Houston previously.
Violence always gets televised. Let's not let that happen.
The media loves to fan flames like these. And it's burning right now like a Texas wildfire ... or a Waxahachie chemical plant. Conservatives kooks are howling while we liberals are laughing behind our hands.
Cooler heads, however; Wayne Slater said on Hardball earlier today that he was convinced -- after years of covering him in Austin -- Rick Perry wasn't a racist. Michael Steele said it (the lack of tolerance, particularly by conservative writers/talkers) points up the fundamental problem the GOP has in recruiting African-Americans. I believe those are both true and accurate statements.
I don't give a shit how The Rock Affair turns out; I will just note that this is Perry's second week -- almost third, since his poor debate performances -- of daily bad news. He's in quicksand up to his chin. At this point I'm just hoping Christie Creme jumps in the race. And immediately gets into a shouting match with some TeaBaggers over gun control or immigration or something else, and has to be rushed to the hospital with heart palpitations.
Never forget, no matter how much or how little progress we have made in the past few years with respect to tolerance: ageism and fat biasnever go out of style.
Back when I was a boy and didn’t know any better and didn’t have any sense and shouldn’t be held responsible for anything I did, said or thought, my daddy procured some land, and we used it for hunting and other manly activities involving guns. On that property, there was a rock that looked an awful lot like a bearded man sodomizing a Irish Setter, and some person from far in the past had painted “Jesus Buttfucking Big Red” on it.
Now, for reasons that are very complicated about the history of the region where I grew up, it was once acceptable to point out that rocks or other objects sometimes looked like our Savior engaging in bestiality with a variety of animals. While I think that’s vile and condemn it, it was also part of the culture of our area, and it’s in the past, and we can all forget about it. Even so, and even though we were just leasing that property and didn’t really own it, which means that rock wasn’t really even ours to change, we definitely painted over that rock as soon as we we got round to it, sometime in the 80’s.
So, I have to dispute the claim by seven different people that it took my family a long time to paint over that rock, written on by others, long ago, that had an “insensitive and offensive” message on it. But, man, you really did have to see that rock to believe how much it looked like the Son of God screwing the pooch.
You might have anticipated that Perry would face a firestorm for being associated with the property, but it's Cain whose remarks are drawing the most criticism from the right. At RedState, Erick Erickson concluded, "It also seems to be a slander Herman Cain is picking up and running with as a way to get into second place." Glenn Reynolds remarked that until now, Cain's "big appeal is that he's not just another black race-card-playing politician." Over at the Daily Caller, Matt Lewis called Cain's remarks "a cheap shot, and, perhaps a signal that Cain is willing to play the race card against a fellow Republican when it benefits him."
The key phrase here is "fellow Republican." Because, you see, no one thought Cain was "playing the race card" when he said in the same program that black people are "brainwashed" into voting for Democrats and suggested that black people who vote Republican are "thinking for themselves." Cain wasn't rebuked by conservatives when he previously suggested President Barack Obama was not "a strong black man," implied liberals were out to commit genocide against blacks through support for abortion rights, and said he wouldn't appoint a Muslim to his cabinet.
Stewart began with the first sign that things were amiss for Perry, his unsatisfactory debate performance, in which Stewart joked one could see “a squadron of tiny little men inside his head, trying to find the right paper, one of them drops coffee on the control panel…”
He then turned to the controversy at hand, and just the name of the ranch made the audience laugh and applaud. “Let the record show,” Stewart joked, “that our audience will fucking cheer anything at times.” He abstained from making a Republican debate audience, joke, however, and instead turned to Cenac, live from “Nigger Lake,” a real place until New York finally got around to renaming it. He then listed a number of very racist, real places that to him proved “there aren’t no black people making maps,” before indulging in a rendition of the “lost verses” of “America the Beautiful” that reflect these map changes.
The Texas Progressive Alliance calls your attention to a week full of progressive activism throughout the state, from "Move to Amend" events to "Occupy" demonstrations as it brings you this week's roundup.
Off the Kuff notes that the federal court in San Antonio has issued an injunction preventing the state from implementing its new redistricting maps, and that until preclearance is granted it will draw its own maps to use for next year.
The "Move to Amend" Texas tour -- the effort to repeal the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision by constitutional amendment -- has stops scheduled in Bryan-College Station, Houston, San Antonio, Bastrop, Austin, and Corpus this week. PDiddie at Brains and Eggs has the details.
David Cobb, a fiery speaker and former Green Party presidential candidate, is touring Texas giving his talk “Creating Democracy & Challenging Corporate Rule”. His presentation is part history lesson and part heartfelt call to action!
Cobb is an organizer and national spokesman for MoveToAmend.org, a coalition of over 130,000 people and organizations whose goal is to amend the United States Constitution to end corporate rule and legalize democracy.
Sunday, October 2, 2:00-4:00pm – BRYAN-COLLEGE STATION.
Clara Mounce Public Library. 201 E 26th Street, Bryan.
Tuesday, October 4, 7:00pm – HOUSTON. Home of Lee and Hardy Loe.
1844 Kipling, Houston.
Wednesday, October 5, 6:30pm – SAN ANTONIO. The Radius Center (in the gallery).
106 Auditorium Circle, San Antonio.
Thursday, October 6, 7:00pm – BASTROP. First National Bank.
489 Hwy. 71. W, Bastrop.
Sunday, October 9, 6:00pm – AUSTIN. Third Coast Workers for Cooperation.
5604 Manor Road, Austin.
Monday, October 10, 7:00pm – CORPUS CHRISTI. Unitarian Universalist Church.
6901 Holly Road, Corpus Christi.
Houston Mayor Annise Parker announced a crackdown on so-called bandit signs Wednesday, pledging to issue fines to political candidates and others who illegally post their signs on city land.
The announcement comes less than a month before early voting in her re-election campaign. Parker said election season is when signs proliferate and that the city spent $450,000 in 2009 to take them down. The $200-per-offense fines aim to recover the city's costs.
"This is about quality of life in our city. This is about visual pollution, and this is about someone trampling on the public right of way and intruding in the public space. And it is about tax dollars – $450,000 a year to deal with illegally placed signs," Parker said during a news conference following Wednesday's City Council meeting.
(W)hether you’re concerned about those signs that break the law or those that clutter our streets and sightlines, it’s all good if the net effect is to convince candidates to leave signs off the junkier placements that serve no purpose.
The Press, with the street artist Shreddi taking matters into his own hands (really; click over and look at his handiwork):
What is it about Eric Dick that gets to you?
Shreddi: I don't think a lot of people have picked up on the fact that politicians use graffiti tactics for their personal gain. Each election year, without fail, we get this illegal political signage jammed all over empty lots, chain-link fences, telephone poles, etc. The problem is, once elected, these politicians persecute the general public for doing the same fucking thing...It's a double standard. It's funny too, because when I pulled down one of these signs, there was another political sign underneath it. So they're even covering each other's tags. I read last year the city spent a million dollars on graffiti cleanup. Politicians could probably cut that number in half if they'd stop posting their mind-numbing graffiti everywhere. Obviously I have no problem with self-promotion, or art in the streets. I have a problem with politicians holding the public to standards they don't abide to themselves. And I don't have anything specifically against Dick....his ballsy sign campaign just stood out.
Update II: In his sneering press release intended as a response to the mayor's enforcement of the ordinance, Dick discloses an endorsement from "The Log Cabin". I am familiar with the Log Cabin Republicans, but does anyone know what "The Log Cabin" is that Dick refers to here? Certainly it's not the maple syrup; could it be that little house in Emancipation Park? Has Dick nailed his campaign signs to its roof?
Is this the same ringing endorsement as the empty lots and utility poles and overhead crosswalks that have also 'endorsed' him? I must admit that I'm not well-versed with all of the changes passed in the recent legislative session with respect to election law: do inanimate objects get to vote now? Do they have to show photo ID if they do?
And if not, then should we alert the King Street/True the Vote thugs to show up at the polls in order to suppress the possible votes of vacant buildings, cyclone fences, weed-filled lots, city rights-of-way, and the like?
When it comes to our freedoms you can't be too scared careful.
I'm concerned that in our habitually low-turnout municipal elections, the boulevard median near my polling place might be able to sway the election. And these days, it just looks a little too brown to ... you know ... be legal.
Instead, the job hungry came en mass(sic) Monday to the Robert A. "Bob" Bowers Civic Center in Port Arthur, turning the first part of a State Department public hearing on the Keystone XL crude pipeline into a virtual rally for the project.
For about the first two hours, the only critical comments of the proposed 1,700-mile pipeline that would connect tar sands in Alberta, Canada to refineries in Port Arthur came from those expressing concerns that the jobs created would not go to Southeast Texans and that the State Department was moving too slowly in issuing a permit.
It's no surprise to me really. This is where I grew up; the oil (refining) patch. The area is hurting -- though not so bad as they would think, particularly in comparison to many other places in the country. They just cannot break out of the generational paradigm that's been in place since Spindletop.
They've lived with refinery pollution for decades. What's a little more as long as they can get paid?
Republican Texas State Rep. James White, whose district includes Angelina, Trinity and San Jacinto counties, noted that the agency had already assessed the environmental impact and said he wanted to see the permitting process expedited.
"This is why people are frustrated with government," he said to applause from a crowd numbering around 500. "We need jobs!"
Garden variety demagoguery. Port Arthur is nowhere near James White's statehouse district, but redistricting has paired him in a GOP primary with Tuffy Hamilton and he needs to stoke that TeaBagger fear and hate back home if he wants to entertain any notion of going back to Austin. Here's Dustin Matocha, chairman of the UT chapter of the Young Conservatives of Texas, writing at Empower Texas with all the background on that race you can possibly stand. Now back to the Golden Triangle ...
Earlier Monday, 200 people attended a meeting in Topeka, Kan., with a drastically different audience than the one seen in Port Arthur. In Kansas, a number of environmentalists spoke against the pipeline, claiming it would move a "dirtier" and "environmentally devastating form of energy" from Canada through six U.S. states before ending up in Port Arthur ...
Well those damned Kansas liberals.
There's another hearing tomorrow in Austin -- none in Houston, where the pipeline's other southern terminus will be located -- and I'm just guessing a different crowd will turn out for that one.
I knew the film depicted natural gas drilling in the Haynesville Shale as an economic miracle for folks in north Louisiana and East Texas, with barely a mention of environmental health risks. I said yes, received an enthusiastic confirmation letter requesting my bio, which I sent in, a request to sign the “Talent Agreement,” and a list of the panel members.
I saw I was the token enviro on the panel, but I’ve been a turd in the punchbowl before. I did want to know how the panel would be structured, and if I would have an opportunity to correct their misinformation.
I sent back the following email:
I am quite surprised that your panel is so unbalanced. I would like to get more information on how this panel will work. I don't mind being the token environmental person as long as I have an opportunity to give my vast experiences living in the gas patch and working with people who are suffering from natural gas drilling that is too close to their homes.
The next thing I know: I received a phone call from the festival coordinator notifying me that I was uninvited to participate. Maybe they would find a more suitable panel for me sometime. Ouch! But, on second thought, I reclaimed my weekend and shrugged it off to the influence from T. Boone Pickens, one of the festival’s financial backers.
Then somebody sent me this poster from the event.
Hmmm. So the Texas Tribune Festival was co-sponsored by America’s Natural Gas Alliance. The Tribune’s website says other sponsors included El Paso Natural Gas and Energy Futures Corp., formerly Texas Utilities. I was starting to put two and two together.
The TexTrib does a fine job with hiring a few good journos at above-scale wages, a great job with maps and data, the occasional blog-styled snark and once in a great while even a breaking news update. They've more or less made obsolete poor Harvey Kronberg's modern-Internet-challenged Quorum Report, though the insiders still pay for Harvey's access to the players. (The Trib is busily fondling that crowd for all it's worth, too.)
But their polling of political races has beenabsolute shit, and sadly now we know that their integrity is as well.
Then Steve Horn of DeSmog Blog published an investigative piece on Alternet exposing Haynesville as a piece of industry propaganda masquerading as an independent documentary. Turns out Gregory Kallenberg “is actually a well-connected oil and natural gas man, with both a direct and familial financial stake in the ongoing domestic natural gas boom.”
Horn learned that Kallenberg is vice president of his family’s company, Caddo Management Inc. of Shreveport. Caddo Management is an oil and gas exploration company with active drilling operations in Arkansas and Louisiana.
So do you think that when Kallenberg takes his supposed independent documentary to international film festivals he’s upfront about his oil and gas connections and the fact that he’s flacking for the industry? (Even though he makes no mention of them on his website under the “about” section or in “film credits.”)
If you believe that, you probably still believe in the independence and integrity of The Texas Tribune’s shale gas coverage.
Maybe there is an explanation of the Tribune’s behavior that isn’t explained by financial influence of the natural gas industry. But if there is, it is past time for them to make their case. And from where I sit, it better be a doozy.
You just have to understand from now on what you're getting when you read the Trib. You're getting the straight story ... as told by the oil and gas companies' PR departments.
Libby Shaw over at TexasKaos brings us up to date on Rick Perry's limelight moment. Called upon to demonstrate his cool under fire before a national audience at the last Republican debate, he showed his true mettle. He melted down. See all the details here: Rick Perry Bombs Presidential Debate.
