Last Monday, attorney Barbara Arnwine was rudely awakened by the sounds of a police raid on her home. Arnwine is not really the type you'd expect SWAT teams to be targeting. She's the Executive Director for the Lawyers' Committee on Civil Rights and is actively challenging Voter ID laws around the country, as depicted in the video at the top.

Via Politics on Point:

While Arnwine and members of the Lawyers Committee are calling for the Department of Justice to stop what she, and others call ‘assaults’ on voters, she found her and own family under assault.

She, her son, and nephew were all held at gun point while the officers raided her home.

The reason has yet to be determined.

According to Arnwine, it appears that they were randomly fishing, possibly as an intimidation tactic. Here's audio of an interview she did with a local radio station:

Barbara Arnwine by politicsonpoint

Arnwine said the officers even went as far as to demean her education asking her in derogatory fashion, where did she go to school and the year she graduated as to suggest she wasn’t properly credentialed. When she told the officers that their actions weren’t warranted and she knew her constitutional rights she was met with ‘they don’t apply here today’.

The officers, with guns drawn, challenged Arnwine and her family, suggesting that if they made one wrong move, she and her family would be met with a unfavorable-like fate.

“Don’t make me hurt you” seemed to be the order of the day, recounted Arnwine.

Arnwine later said after the police failed to produce a warrant, and acted as though they didn’t know who she was, misspelling her name, that she thinks the swat team had the wrong house. She called the ordeal a “fishing exposition”.

The timing certainly seems suspect:

On November 16, Arwine testified at a voter voter suppression summit to House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD), CBC Chair Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO), Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) and several other members of Congress alongside ACLU Legislative Director Laura Murphy. On June 13, Arnwine appeared with other civil rights leaders, including Wade Henderson and Rev. Jackson, at the National Press Club on voter suppression. On July 13, she appeared with Rev. Jackson Jr, and eight members of Congress on issues surrounding new Voter ID laws passed in several states. Reps. Marcia Fudge (D-OH), Hank Johnson (D-GA), Betty Sutton (D-OH), Barbara Lee (D-CA) and Maxine Waters (D-CA) spoke at the press conference along with Arnwine.

Arwine informed Rev. Sharpton that one of the members of the Prince George’s County Police Department was “taken aback” when she informed them she was an attorney and of basic fourth 4th Amendment rights. Arnwine claims the officer responded that “the fourth Amendment doesn’t apply here.” She also said they didn’t believe she was an attorney and asked what school she attended and what year she graduated. Arnwine is a graduate of Duke University School of Law.

These tactics aren't new. They're used routinely, especially with people of color. But they are egregious, particularly when Arnwine's line of work is taken into account. It does appear to be what she says: An effort to intimidate and demean her.

They've got good reason to be afraid of Ms. Arnwine. She is well-known on Capitol Hill, has testified at many Congressional hearings, and is a fierce advocate for civil rights and economic justice. This year she was awarded the Gruber International Justice Prize for her work promoting equal justice.

The police may have chosen the wrong woman to harass and intimidate. Evidently they're claiming they had the wrong address, an excuse that sounds laughable and ridiculous. At the very least, it makes them look like buffoons and fools, which I suppose might be better than looking like evil thugs. I'm sure we haven't heard the last of this. I'll update with any information available.

Notice how Republicans are all about states' rights -- until it affects one of their hot-button issues like abortion, gay marriage and handgun laws! Assuming they had actual reasons, the same logic that theoretically may apply in sparsely-populated Wyoming just doesn't make sense in a crowded urban center. But then, logic doesn't have much to do with this, as New Jersey Sen. Loretta Weinberg makes clear:

Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Bergen) announced Friday she has introduced a legislative resolution condemning the “National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act of 2011,” saying that the federal proposal would undermine New Jersey’s gun control laws and states’ traditional role in deciding the best gun control strategies for each individual state.

“Historically, states have been given the right of self-determination when it comes to gun control,” Weinberg said. “Regardless of how you feel about New Jersey’s gun control laws, the federal legislation which was recently passed by the House would set a terrible precedent, and opens the door for Second Amendment activists elsewhere in the country to override New Jersey’s own laws. Hopefully, Governor Christie and our Congressional leaders will stand up for our state and oppose this overreaching federal bill.”

The resolution (SR-132), would express the state Senate’s opposition to the federal bill (H.R. 822). The proposal, which was approved by a vote of 272-154 on Nov. 16, would allow individuals with a permit to carry a concealed weapon in one state the ability to carry a concealed weapon in every other state that allows people to carry concealed weapons, without having to reapply for a permit in each state. The result would be that individuals with a permit to carry from a more lax gun control state would have unchecked ability to carry a concealed weapon in N.J., where they may not even qualify for a permit. The federal bill is not expected to pass the Democratic-controlled U.S. Senate.

Currently, only Illinois and the District of Columbia prohibit individuals from carrying a concealed weapon.

Weinberg noted that only seven Republicans voted against the legislation in the House – where it had large support from the National Rifle Association – despite the fact that Republicans tend to favor states’ rights over federal regulation.

This is Dedicated to the thousands of people who are standing up for what they believe in. -- Miley Cyrus

We're used to Lady Gaga and other pop stars using their celebrity status to speak out but this web video by the teen superstar released this week raised a few eyebrows with its Occupy footage. Whatever her or her handlers' reasons were for putting it out, it is surprisingly effective.

We will continue to see the economic effects of the "extend and pretend" philosophy of pumping massive amounts of public money into failing banks for a very long time. (Thank God we taught those homeowners a moral lesson by refusing to help them, huh?) Yes, the banks lied about their stability, the regulators lied to the public, and no, they really didn't pay back TARP in full. But at least we didn't allow homeowners to get a break, and that's the most important thing (as a bunch of millionaires courageously decided).

It's a shame that the European Union isn't learning from our mistakes, either:

The Federal Reserve and the big banks fought for more than two years to keep details of the largest bailout in U.S. history a secret. Now, the rest of the world can see what it was missing.

The Fed didn’t tell anyone which banks were in trouble so deep they required a combined $1.2 trillion on Dec. 5, 2008, their single neediest day. Bankers didn’t mention that they took tens of billions of dollars in emergency loans at the same time they were assuring investors their firms were healthy. And no one calculated until now that banks reaped an estimated $13 billion of income by taking advantage of the Fed’s below-market rates, Bloomberg Markets magazine reports in its January issue.

Saved by the bailout, bankers lobbied against government regulations, a job made easier by the Fed, which never disclosed the details of the rescue to lawmakers even as Congress doled out more money and debated new rules aimed at preventing the next collapse.

A fresh narrative of the financial crisis of 2007 to 2009 emerges from 29,000 pages of Fed documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act and central bank records of more than 21,000 transactions. While Fed officials say that almost all of the loans were repaid and there have been no losses, details suggest taxpayers paid a price beyond dollars as the secret funding helped preserve a broken status quo and enabled the biggest banks to grow even bigger.

Go read the whole infuriating story. Apparently passing "too big to fail" regulation would have been "punishing success." Meanwhile, senior citizens who are living in their cars and dumpster diving for food because these bastards crashed the economy? Losers!

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Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain insisted Sunday that allowing the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to profile airline passengers was different than "driving while black."

During a CNN debate earlier this month, Cain proposed a policy which he called "targeted identification" to find terrorists at airports, something most people call racial profiling.

"If you take a look at the people who have tried to kill us, it would be easier to figure out exactly what that identification profile looked like," the candidate told CNN moderator Wolf Blitzer, who he referred to simply as "Blitz."

In an interview Sunday, CNN's Candy Crowley pressed Cain on what he meant by "targeted identification."

"I don't see it as another word for profiling," Cain explained. "Targeted identification is a deliberate approach to figure out patterns associated with people who have tried to kill us."

"But this sounds a little bit like 'flying while Middle Eastern,' not unlike 'driving while black,'" Crowley noted, referring to the fact that African Americans are often stopped by law enforcement more often than whites.

"Candy, you are trying to pull me into the rhetoric that gets people in trouble, and what I'm trying to do is not be drawn into that," Cain objected. "No. I am not trying to identify a particular religion, a particular color, a particular ethnicity. I'm simply saying, we should not be afraid to identify those characteristics that basically have been consistent in people who have tried to hurt this country. That's all I'm saying."

In July, Cain was forced to apologize to U.S. Muslims after he said that he would not permit a person of the Muslim faith to join his cabinet, and that communities should be able to ban mosques.

Via ThinkProgress:

Bill Looman, who owns U.S. Cranes, LLC in Waco, Georgia, explained that while “I’ve got people that I want to hire now,” he didn’t think he would be able to foot the expense “unless some things change in D.C.”

Not content to simply implement the new policy internally, Looman decided to plaster it on all his company’s trucks. He did so, as 11Alive noted, “for all to see as the trucks roll up and down roads, highways and interstates.”

Just in case you thought this guy was in any way rational, guess again:

The notion that President Obama’s economic policies preclude small businesses from hiring new workers isn’t the only ludicrous claim Looman pushes. A cursory glance at Looman’s public Facebook page shows he is prone to anti-Obama conspiracy theories. Earlier this month, he posted a false report that Larry Sinclair – the man who claimed he did drugs and had sex with President Obama – had died and implied foul play,writing “MAKES YOU WONDER HUH?” Looman’s page is also riddled with pro-confederate and anti-Muslim postings.

I'm going to step out on a limb here and say that I wouldn't especially want to work for this guy, either. If he's dumb enough to believe the nonsense spewed by Pam Geller and her ilk, he's probably not really someone who runs his business with any sense at all. Come to think of it, not hiring workers when he needs them is more or less evidence of that.

Daily Kos has a little more background on this guy. He appears to be a birther and member of the North Georgia Militia:

Baltimore Liberal Examiner reporter Bill Schmalfeldt broke the story about Looman’s connections in a series of in-depth pieces published Nov 21-23. Schmalfeldt’s work was based on website content including anti-government manifestos allegedly written by Looman himself, at BillLooman.com, BRLOA.com, a website that represents the Beaver Run Land Owners Association, which is headed by Looman and appears to be engaged in an ongoing dispute with him, and Facebook accounts for Looman and the North Georgia Militia. The North Georgia Militia Facebook group had 65 members. Most of the online material that Looman had posted was taken down during the week and the Facebook accounts were closed. Screen captures of the materials have been posted elsewhere.

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Video of Afghan police laughing while forcing a cross-dressing man to strip has gone viral, being viewed over 44,000 times in just one day.

Filmed near Kabul earlier this month and uploaded to LiveLeak.com Saturday, the eight-minute video shows Afghan National Police humiliating the man nearly to the point of tears as they demanded he remove layer after layer.

The man was seen removing his wig and robe, revealing a red dress that would typically be worn by an Afghan woman.

As the police laugh out loud, the man begged, "Don't make fun of me," according to The Daily Mail.

The officers then insisted that he remove his fake breasts, which turned out to be two dough-filled socks.

"Dough to make the breasts feel softy-soft," one officer chuckled.

"Why are you dressed like this? Where did you put the makeup on? What is all this about? What have you two been up to?" two of the officers asked.

"I was shopping for clothes," the crossdresser replied, insisting that he hadn't "committed any crime."

The Guardian's Nushin Arbabzadah determined that the man was eventually arrested. A cross-dresser is often referred to by the derogatory term "ezak" in Afghanistan, where the practice is illegal.

"From the officers' tone it was evident that they felt proud of the arrest, believing they had protected ordinary families from a couple of 'dangerous perverts,'" Arbabzadah wrote.

"It is true that different cultures create distinctive personality traits, but as the case of the unlucky Afghan transvestite revealed, such non-standard but deeply felt psychological needs are universal, with transvestites from the dusty roads of Kabul to the sparkling clubs of New York feeling the same urge to dress up as women with or without society's approval," she added.

Lance Mannion: This is the best of all possible worlds – keep that in mind while you’re enjoying your cat food supper.

We Are Respectable Negroes: A history too personal.

Evil Slutopia: How do you handle rape jokes on Twitter?

Planet of the Blind: What does it mean to have not seen, and then see?

Guest post by Batocchio. Email tips to mbru AT crooksandliars DOT com.

Live Video streaming by Ustream

Update 5:15am PST: Uh-oh. One cop struck someone in the crowd, but after initial shocked gasps, the protesters are remaining firm on their non-violent position. Let's hope that is all we see of violence there at Occupy LA.
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Update 5:00am PST: From the video, police have told protesters that they will not arrest anyone in the park, but anyone who continues to block the street will be arrested, with the deadline for those arrests being now. Most are complying and have returned to the park where the encampment is located.

Police just announced that if members of the media do not get out of the street and into the park that they will be arrested. Large police presence in riot gear, batons out. Situation getting tense, protesters chanting "Protect and serve!"
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Update: 3:40am PST: Via Reuters:

Hundreds of anti-Wall Street activists who faced eviction early Monday from their eight-week-old encampment outside Los Angeles City Hall will be allowed to stay put until at least dawn, a police official said.

But police Commander Andrew Smith said demonstrators who continued to block downtown streets adjacent to the camp would be subject to immediate arrest.

Via Twitter now:

Police tell #OccupyLA protesters to clear encampment within the hour | http://aje.me/tnSVnT

Update 2:00am PST: Changed livestream to better quality version.

Update 1:50am PST: More from Brad Friedman, who is there on the ground in LA:

Cop at #OccupyLA sez "I don't wanna start arresting folks. If ur in park u won't be. Only arrested if in streets." #MixedMessages

Update 1:30am PST: Various Twitter feeds reporting anywhere from 1-3,000 protesters are on the scene tonight to back up those who have been encamped at Occupy LA, and are spilling into the streets.

Also reports - unconfirmed - that the eviction will not happen tonight. Supporters on Twitter seem agreed that this is an attempt to get people to leave, and eviction will happen when there are fewer people around, perhaps later this morning.

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Watching live: The mayor of Los Angeles said that 57 days of Occupy LA was okay, but not 58. This is eviction day, stay tuned...

Most information will have to come in from "Twitter" until actual reports come from the media. I will post the most trustworthy sources I have available.

From Brad Friedman of The Brad Blog:

#OccupyLA Gen. Assmbly speaker reporting bus nearby labeled "Dept. of Homeland Security - Immigration Customs Enforcment". #ows

CBS reports:

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said earlier that the grounds would be closed after the deadline, while Police Chief Charlie Beck promised that arrests would eventually be made if protesters did not comply.

But in a statement issued shortly before midnight, the mayor said police "will allow campers ample time to remove their belongings peacefully and without disruption."

Villaraigosa said police and social workers will walk through the park handing out information on the closure and services available, and expressed hope it would happen in a "spirit of cooperation."

But many including the protest's chief organizers said they had no intention of cooperating, and only a handful of campers cleared out over the weekend.

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Credit: John Cole / Scranton Times-Tribune

Open Thread below...