WI cops join the protests

Boing boing has more. Read the rest of this post...

Sarah Palin a 'froot loop'

Per Jamie Oliver, celebrity chef, about Palin criticizing Michelle Obama for urging the country to eat well. Read the rest of this post...

Nearly 70,000 rally in Wisconsin

From the Wisconsin State Journal:

For a second straight Saturday, tens of thousands of protesters have filled the streets around the state Capitol in what organizers hope will be the largest day yet in the continuing struggle to stop Gov. Scott Walker's plan to essentially end collective bargaining rights for most public employees.
Madison police spokesman Joel DeSpain said the number of protesters around the Capitol is on the scale of last Saturday's peak crowd of an estimated 68,000 and could swell even more for a 3 p.m. rally.
"We've had no problems," DeSpain said, adding that officers are again committed to keeping the Square "safe for democracy."

And here's a new video about Wisconsin from Andy Cobb and the folks at Second City:

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Egyptian military uses strong force to move protesters

Al Jazeera:

The Egyptian army has used force to disperse activists gathered in Cairo’s Tahrir Square to demand the removal of Hosni Mubarak loyalists from the interim cabinet.

Egyptian soldiers fired in the air and used batons in the early hours of Saturday to disperse the crowd, the Reuters news agency reported.

Demonstrators had also gathered in front of the parliament building in Cairo, where police beat protesters and used tasers to suppress the crowds, an Al Jazeera producer in the capital reported.

The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, the ruling military council, later apologised for the military's response and said the situation "wasn't intentional".

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New ad blasts Wisconsin Governor using his words from prank call with Billionaire Koch

Ian Murphy's prank call to Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker continues to reverberate. A new ad, featuring Walker's words to the guy he thought was billionaire David Koch, is on the air in Wisconsin.

I saw the ad at the Plum Line where Greg Sargent explained:

The ad, at bottom, is designed to paint Walker as an irredeemably ideological, insulated and even tyrannical figure who has gone rogue and can no longer even hear outside voices suggesting reasonable compromise.

Sounds about right.
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Qaddafi forces 'shooting people from ambulances'

The end of the Qaddafi regime is near, but it's ending in a vicious and horrific way. He and his loyalists continue to kill their fellow Libyans -- and part of their policy is to shoot from ambulances:

An increasingly gruesome picture began to emerge Saturday of the violent tactics used by the government of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi to quell protesters in Tripoli, the Libyan capital, with several witnesses confirming that forces loyal to the government had been shooting people from ambulances and using antiaircraft guns against crowds.

Witnesses to the violence in Tripoli, where a tense standoff held on Saturday, also said that the government had removed dead bodies as well as the wounded from hospitals in an effort to disguise the mounting death toll in the uprising against Col. Qaddafi sweeping Libya.

Col. Qaddafi’s forces had put down demonstrators, who had taken to the streets after Friday Prayers to mount their first major challenge to the government’s crackdown, with snipers from rooftops, buckshot, and tear gas, witnesses said. There were unconfirmed reports that an armed rebel force was approaching the city on Saturday.

Qaddafi's days are numbered. Now, it's a question of how many people will die to end the dictatorship. Read the rest of this post...

Nearly 49% of new jobs are low wage positions

Good luck rebounding if there's no middle class. This isn't a new problem but Washington keeps pretending as though it isn't even a problem. The decades long decline is ignored by both parties in favor of making life easier and more comfortable for the financial elite. NY Times:

America’s private payrolls shrank from January 2008 through February 2010, losing 8.84 million jobs on net. They have been growing every month since that nadir, adding 1.26 million jobs on net. (Public payrolls are another story — they’ve been falling over the last year.)

All this means, of course, that the private sector job market still has a long way to go before it returns to its previous peak. Worse, those jobs that have been created in the last year typically pay less than the jobs they’re replaced.

According to NELP:

* Lower-wage industries (those paying $9.03 -$12.91 per hour) accounted for just 23 percent of job losses, but fully 49 percent of recent growth.
* Midwage industries ($12.92 -$19.04 per hour) accounted for 36 percent of job losses, and 37 percent of recent growth.
* Higher-wage industries ($19.05 -$31.40 per hour) accounted for 40 percent of job loss, but only 14 percent of recent growth.

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George Harrison - While My Guitar Gently Weeps

So much good music from that concert back in '71.

While it's a rainy day over here, the gardens are progressing. I noticed the first daffodils of the season open on Tuesday and many more yesterday. Still not full bloom, but it's looking nice. The hotel across the street has four massive camellia bushes in bloom but we don't get the same amount of sunshine each day on ours. We're still waiting. Read the rest of this post...

UK to Gaddafi loyalists: Quit now or face war crimes

It's time the rest of the world gets behind this both in the UN and directly between the country and Gaddafi loyalists. The Guardian:

Britain's direct warnings to Libyan officials coincided with a joint British and French draft UN security council resolution the Libyan leadership to face war crimes prosecutions at the international criminal court for attacks on protesters. The resolution also called for travel bans and asset freezes for Libya's leaders.

Gaddafi showed no sign of heeding the warnings. Reports said that gunmen in cars in the capital, Tripoli, opened fire on protesters as they emerged from Friday prayers.

Nearby, in Green Square, the Libyan leader made another defiant televised appearance, promising to arm his supporters. "Retaliate against them, retaliate against them," he told a crowd of loyalists from the ramparts of a crusader fort overlooking the square. "Dance, sing and prepare. Prepare to defend Libya, to defend the oil, dignity and independence."

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