This just in... Europeans reach emergency deal on Greek debt

It sounds promising, but we'll have to hear from the experts in the morning. Read the rest of this post...

French have best personal hygiene in Europe

And down goes another stereotype.

Confounding certain longstanding negative stereotypes, a survey by US consulting firm United Minds for Tena (a Swedish manufacturer of personal hygiene products) found that 97% of women in France feel ill at ease going out without having washed their hands or brushed their teeth, compared to 84% of Germans.

And 94% of them feel uncomfortable leaving the house if they have not showered, as opposed to only 74% of women in Britain.

The poll also found that the French dedicate more time to the pursuit of cleanliness, with French men spending 35 minutes a day on attending to personal hygiene and women taking an average of 46 minutes – more than all other European countries.

Read the rest of this post...

Bachman owed departed NH staff a months wages.

Looks like the Bachmann campaign is in its crash and burn phase.

How can a candidate claim to be looking out for the interests of the country when they can't even be bothered to pay their own staff? Maybe I have can still hope that Bachmann, Paul and Perry manage to get enough delegates to force a brokered convention on the GOP. Read the rest of this post...

Next time...

From Daily Kos' David Waldman via Twitter:

Next time I hear about how vets fight to protect our rights, I'll remember the one they shot in the head for actually exercising them.

The Oakland Police are reportedly doing a preliminary review of whether it was appropriate to shoot an Iraq war vet in the head with "non lethal" ammunition that has him in critical condition. I hope they also explain why it was necessary for one particular officer to throw an explosive device at a small crowd of protesters trying to administer first aid to the wounded vet.  Absolutely sickening what the city of Oakland has done. Read the rest of this post...

John McCarthy 1927-2011

After Steve Jobs and Dennis Ritchie, computing has lost its third pioneer in a fortnight.

John McCarthy left MIT long before I arrived but his influence was still very apparent. When Stanford decided to make a play to become the MIT of the West back in the 1960s, McCarthy was one of the first people they hired to form the nucleus of their Computer Science group.

McCarthy was the father of LISP, the first functional programming language. While most of the obituaries of Dennis Ritchie mention his work on UNIX. His much more important claim to fame in my view was that he was the creator of C which is still one of the most widely used programming languages and the foundation for Objective C, C# and Java. Read the rest of this post...

Video: Cat sucker punches baby

For today's breather, a very short and very cute video. I'm going to link to it, since we already have so many OWS videos posted today, and they tend to slow the site down further. This one really is funny, and short. Enjoy. (H/t HuffPost Hill) Read the rest of this post...

Before and after pics of Oakland police raid on OWS protest

The photos are jarring.  One one hand you have what barely even looks like a protest: a small group of people sitting in the sun, talking; a man reading a book; a small child visiting the children's tent.  Then what comes next: utter devastation.  What was a clean orderly protest is now a disaster zone.  I hesitate to compare the Oakland police to Russian and Chinese thugs.  But looking at the photos, and the videos - and what the police have done in NYC and elsewhere - and it's difficult to tell yourself that we're supposedly the good guys.

Where were the police when anti-Obama Tea Partiers were bringing weapons to Obama rallies?  That's okay - implicitly threatening the life of a presidential candidate (in part, one suspects, based on his race).  But holding a peaceful protest?  Then the cops let loose.  The sympathy the police are generating for these protesters, and the bad-will and bad PR they're generating for their own towns and their profession, is inestimable at this point. Read the rest of this post...

When GOPers brought military rifles to Obama rallies the police didn’t do a thing

A friend writes:

Seems like we're taking it on the chin in lots of ways, small (Seattle police shining flashlights in campers' tents all night long asking "are you OK?" to keep them awake) and large (NYC beatings, oakland tear gas). Dan Savage has a post up that an MSNBC anchor actually said that oakland police fired tear gas canisters to "calm the crowd". How calming.

I know that the Supreme Court has said the First Amendment isn't absolute--the famous "time, place, and manner" restrictions apply to the exercise of free speech. But my feeling lately is less indulgent:
We either have a right to assemble, speak, and petition for a redress of grievances... or we don't. which is it? especially when it's taking place all across the country.

I don't know. Maybe in each case there was some serious problem developing, but it seems like it's just stupidity and sometimes it seems like it's unconstitutional abuse by police. The media aren't talking about it in any way except to show the pictures.

When the tea partiers had their assault weapons at Obama rallies, and were protesting en masse, police didn't do a damn thing. (Not that they should have, but by comparison, the occupiers are less dangerous by and large than those assault rifle-toting idiots.)

Maybe I'm off-kilter here? am i being too sensitive? the cumulative impact of it all is starting to make me pretty upset.

The mayor of Oakland is getting blasted on her Facebook page - 6000 comments and counting. Read the rest of this post...

Oakland cops shoot Iraq vet in head; fractured skull, swollen brain, critical condition (OWS)

NOTE FROM GP (5:35 EST): This is exactly the police behavior captured in the videos posted here. Watch again — woman down, crowd gathers to help, cops attack crowd. The second vid shows the woman carried away, dazed and possibly contused; condition unknown.

In cop world they call that an M.O. — wait till they gather, then attack. The injured woman and wounded vet were used as Judas goats.

NOTE FROM JOHN (4:30 EST): And when his friends went to try to help the man, who was now lying still on the ground after having suffered a fractured skull and a swollen brain apparently from the recent police attack, the cops attacked again, throwing an explosive device into the middle of the group helping the fallen man, in order to disperse them.

Beyond sickening.
___________

This is truly sickening and maddening. First, Oakland police shot Scott Olsen, an Iraq War vet and #OccupyOakland demonstrator, in the head with a "non-lethal" projectile, likely a tear gas canister or flash grenade. Scott is now in critical condition, being treated for a fractured skull and swollen brain. He and his family are in my thoughts. From the Guardian:

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.

"I'm just absolutely devastated that someone who did two tours of Iraq and came home safely is now lying in a US hospital because of the domestic police force," Carpenter said.

To make matters worse, while Occupy Oakland demonstrators were rushing to his aid to give him medical treatment and get him away from ongoing tear gas clouds, a member of the Oakland police department then threw a tear gas canister into the crowd that had gathered around him. More from the Guardian:

Video footage published to YouTube shows Olsen lying prone on the ground infront of a line of police. Around 10 people gather around him in an apparent attempt to provide aid, before a police officer throws an explosive device into their midst, scattering the group. Footage captured after the explosion, which appears to be from a flash bang grenade, shows Olsen being carried away by a group of people.

Warning: this video is violent and disturbing.

While these grenades are also allegedly non-lethal, if you get hit in the head with one, it could kill you. And this police officer threw a tear gas grenade into a crowd of people trying to give someone medical attention.

This is absolutely disgusting and should be the subject of criminal investigations. People need to lose their jobs - the Oakland Chief of Police and the Oakland Mayor to start. This is an absolutely unacceptable use of violence against peaceful protesters. Read the rest of this post...

Flip-flop: Romney fundraising from Solyndra

Sam Stein reports that Mitt Romney has been fundraising from a Solyndra lobbyist.

Romney is holding a fundraiser with nearly two dozen members of Congress on Wednesday, after which he will attend an event at the American Trucking Association with top K Street operatives. The list of attendees revealed by POLITICO includes Alex Mistri, managing director of The Glover Park Group.

Despite working at a predominantly Democratic lobbying firm, Mistri is a reliable GOP donor and Romney supporter. He has donated $2,500 to his presidential bid so far this cycle, on top of the $1,000 he gave to Romney's Free and Strong America PAC. But work he did at Glover Park as a lobbyist for Solyndra seems a touch discordant with the views of many in the Republican Party, who have worked to portray the company's failure as a referendum on alternative energy development and the administration's embrace of it.

Over at MultipleChoiceMitt.com, Matt Ortega notes that this was something Romney used to oppose:

He suggested the loans to the California companies were influenced by campaign donations and called them "handouts to politically connected investors with politically correct business ideas."
...
"Like Solyndra, these loans are turning out to be historic opportunities to line the pockets of major campaign fundraisers," Romney wrote.

I'm sure that no one could have predicted that Mitt Romney would change his view on taking money from Solyndra lobbyists. Read the rest of this post...

VIDEOS: Oakland police lob flash-grenades at protesters helping a downed woman

Update: The comments are filled with good links and information, such as this one on tinnitus (permanent ringing in the ears). Do check them out. Also, title corrected earlier for accuracy.
________

Words fail me. (But I have my thoughts.)

The first video is short (two minutes). It starts with cops firing tear gas canisters into the crowd. (Don't forget — they don't shoot tear gas; they shoot heavy canisters at people.)

At the 0:25 point, the crowd clears and you see a woman downed, possibly by a tear gas canister. (Look center right; a man with a white Occupy flag just beyond her.)

A crowd gathers to help her. At 0:40 the cops lob a flash grenade into the middle of the crowd (and likely right at the downed woman as well).

The rest of the film is devoted to replays. Watch at 1:40; you can clearly see the flash-grenade being lobbed by the merry band of cops. (Thanks to an alert emailer for both videos.)



The second video appears to show the same action as the first, from a different angle. At 1:04 you can see the crowd with the injured woman. As they carry her away, the camera gets close enough to see her — dazed, unresponsive, injured, possibly contused. I'd say chances are good she took a canister to the head.



A woman at the end of this one starts the cry — "We're still here. We're still here."

I have my thoughts.

GP Read the rest of this post...

Maine referendum to protect voting rights goes on air

There's a referendum in Maine to repeal the GOP's law to end same-day voter registration. Protect Maine Votes is running the campaign to repeal the regressive Republican law. They released their first ad this week. It's viewable here.

Here's some background on Question 1:

Since 1973, eligible Mainers have been able to register and vote on Election Day.

It’s a system that has worked, and there’s no good reason to change it.

A “Yes” vote on Question 1 in November will protect voting rights and repeal the new law that eliminates Election Day registration.

We have never had a significant problem with voter fraud. We do not need this new law, and we should reject it because it could discourage many qualified Mainers from voting.

Protect Maine Votes needs donations, as the success or failure of this referendum is going to be based on how many pro-voting rights people they are able to turn out to the polls. You can contribute to their critically important efforts at ActBlue. Read the rest of this post...

Oakland police fire tear gas and stun bullets at Occupy protesters

Happening as I write. First the tear gas part, from the NY Times blog The Lede:

Police Fire Tear Gas at Occupy Protesters in Oakland

Last Updated 9:48 a.m. Riot police in Oakland dispersed hundreds of protesters with tear gas on Tuesday night as crowds tried to re-enter a plaza outside of City Hall that the authorities had cleared of an encampment earlier in the day.

The forceful response by the police to protesters in Oakland came as the police in Atlanta moved in early Wednesday morning to clear an encampment from the city’s central Woodruff Park. ... Wednesday morning in downtown Oakland, a dim cloud of gas still hung in the air over Frank Ogawa Plaza, according to images broadcast on CNN. A small number of police in riot gear stood by barricades around the plaza and a handful of protesters held signs nearby.

“It sounded like bombs,” said Joaquin Jutt, 24, a digital animator who was among the protesters on Tuesday night. ... Protesters, many affiliated with the group Occupy Oakland, can be seen scurrying away from billowing clouds of gas and what appear to be flash grenades in video recorded from a high vantage point in a nearby office building[.]

There's excellent video at the link.

And now about the rubber bullets, Think Progress (my emphasis):

Approximately an hour ago, hundreds of Oakland police officers raided the camp. Dressed in riot gear, the police used rubber bullets, flash grenades, and gas canisters to forcibly evict and/or arrest the demonstrators who remained in the plaza.

John wrote last night about the Oakland police using "flash bang canisters" (flash grenades) against the Occupyers. Click through John's report for stunning video shot high from a news helicopter.

GP Read the rest of this post...

David DeGraw: Big Wall Street bankers should be prosecuted under RICO

Yep. You read that right. (Didn't you always know this was what we're watching, a conspiracy-to-corrupt scandal?)

This Dylan Radigan segment is excellent. It starts with David DeGraw from Amped Status (and the originator of the slogan "We are the 99%" by the way). DeGraw makes the RICO comment in answer to Dylan's question at 6:24 in the clip.

Then Radigan turns to former prosecutor and UMKC professor William Black for comment. Because of burden-of-proof complications (only), Black would recommend prosecuting the bankers under "existing fraud laws, for very conventional fraud." A seasoned prosecutor, he does not say the RICO charges would be inappropriate, just more complicated to prosecute under.

Fascinating; watch (h/t Naked Capitalism):



I like that near the end, Black calls out Paul Krugman for not using the f-word ("fraud"). Black says it's a "silly tribal taboo" that economists don't say it.

I agree; it comes from the same confusion that makes him fail to see his co-professionalists as raw political operatives.

GP Read the rest of this post...

Egyptian statement of solidarity for Occupy Wall Street

This is a truly remarkable and captivating statement of solidarity from activists in Cairo towards the Occupy Wall Street movement. Not shockingly, it's one of the most lucid descriptions of what this movement is about and why occupation is necessary. Here's an excerpt:

An entire generation across the globe has grown up realizing, rationally and emotionally, that we have no future in the current order of things. Living under structural adjustment policies and the supposed expertise of international organizations like the World Bank and IMF, we watched as our resources, industries and public services were sold off and dismantled as the “free market” pushed an addiction to foreign goods, to foreign food even. The profits and benefits of those freed markets went elsewhere, while Egypt and other countries in the South found their immiseration reinforced by a massive increase in police repression and torture.

The current crisis in America and Western Europe has begun to bring this reality home to you as well: that as things stand we will all work ourselves raw, our backs broken by personal debt and public austerity. Not content with carving out the remnants of the public sphere and the welfare state, capitalism and the austerity-state now even attack the private realm and people's right to decent dwelling as thousands of foreclosed-upon homeowners find themselves both homeless and indebted to the banks who have forced them on to the streets.

So we stand with you not just in your attempts to bring down the old but to experiment with the new. We are not protesting. Who is there to protest to? What could we ask them for that they could grant? We are occupying. We are reclaiming those same spaces of public practice that have been commodified, privatized and locked into the hands of faceless bureaucracy , real estate portfolios, and police ‘protection’. Hold on to these spaces, nurture them, and let the boundaries of your occupations grow. After all, who built these parks, these plazas, these buildings? Whose labor made them real and livable? Why should it seem so natural that they should be withheld from us, policed and disciplined? Reclaiming these spaces and managing them justly and collectively is proof enough of our legitimacy.

The full statement from Cairo is posted on OccupyWallSt.org. Read the rest of this post...

Perry 'doesn't care' if rich get richer with flat tax plan

Isn't it about time politicians like Perry start providing some proof that tax cuts for the wealthy deliver real results? While it may be good primary politics within GOP circles, Perry may find it more difficult to win over Americans who are fed up with the 1% profiting while everyone else falls behind. CNBC:

In an exclusive interview with CNBC, Mr. Perry was asked about the millions in tax benefits that would provide for wealthy taxpayers.

"I don't care about that," the governor replied. "What I care about is them having the dollars to invest in their companies, to go out and maybe start a business because they got the confidence again 'cause they actually get to keep more of what they work for.

“Those that want to get into the class warfare and talk about, oh my goodness, there are going to be some folks here who make more money out of this, or have access to more money, I'll let them do that.”

Read the rest of this post...

Video: Oakland CA police use flash-bang stun grenades against peaceful OWS protesters

I'm in Berkeley, only about a few miles away.  Jesus.  This video is outrageous.  They used rubber bullets and stun grenades against peaceful protesters.  Why didn't the police every use any of these violent tactics against Teabaggers who showed up with guns to protest Barack Obama?  No, they only do this when liberals peacefully hold sit ins.  Not when conservatives show up with guns.  It's almost as if the police in all of these various cities are hoping to provoke the demonstrators into responding in kind.  I'm actually amazed they haven't.  More from Mother Jones. Read the rest of this post...