The Fireman and the Arsonist

This cartoon, The Fireman and the Arsonist, which first appeared in Politico, is so cool that it is fast becoming an internet classic.  I  wanted to share it here just in case you haven't seen it. 

It is just sooooooooooo on target and we all know what one picture is worth, don't we?

Scott Olsen, The Martyr of Occupy Oakland

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There is a certain irony in the fact that Scott Olsen, a 24 year old, ex-marine who is today lying in a hospital with a fractured skull, survived not one, but two combat tours in Iraq. It just goes to show that the streets of America can, in some cases, be more dangerous than the battlefields of Iraq. What  Al Quaeda couldn't do, the Oakland police managed handily. Check out the videos below if you don't believe me.

Shame, shame, shame. I haven't been this shocked since National Guard members mowed down Viet Nam war protestors at Kent State University.Four students were killed and nine wounded in what was called " The Kent State Massacre.". I remember watching the TV coverage in 1970 like it was yesterday. My horror at this is the same. A friend of mine used to say as a joke " the first law of parenthood is don't eat the children"  and it seems to me that both at Kent State in 1970 and  in Oakland today, America is devouring its young. Shame shame shame.

The only good news about this is that Scott Olsen has performed a valuable service for his country by becoming an icon for the  Occupy movement.  His injury has, I hope, given the Wall Street fat cats and their lobbyist lackeys in Washington, pause for thought. At least they are paying attention now.  You can't  get rid of an idea with teargas and rubber bullets-- let's hope the powers that be realize that now and start addressing the inequalities that engendered this movement in the first place.

If you haven't  seen the video coverage. I've included a couple of eye openers for you below.  You need to have a look.

 Footage of Scott Olsen and Police 

Aerial View of the Police Action in Oakland

Some of the  Faces of Occupy Oakland( and they aren't all young either)

Why The 99% Are PIssed, Part Two

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Last week I blogged about the stupidity of TV pundits who don't get why the 99% are pissed and who really don't see that the Occupy Wall Street Movement is not a mess of malcontents, but a reflection of global discontent that spans age groups and continents.  It is definitely not going away soon.

This week I came across proof, in the form of an academic study by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich,  one of the world's most respected universities, which concludes that Wall Street really does run the world, and that we are totally at the mercy of a small, tight-knit group of international bankers. The Swiss should certainly know about that, eh?  Here's what the study concludes:

147 companies account for the majority of  the economic value of all international companies, worldwide.  AND-- of the top 50 companies on the list, 45 operate within the financial industry. Do names like Barclays, UBS, and JP Morgan Chase  ring a bell?

So now there is proof that Wall Street really is Lord of the global economy and we the people are nothng but vassals and serfs.  Welcome to the new Dark Ages.  That is why the 99% are pissed and now there is an academic study that proves they have every right to be.

Ex-Vice President Dick Cheney: Still Evil After All These Years

 cartoon credit

Another Guest Opinion post from  Steve Gallop  

Let me begin by apologizing in advance for even reminding you of the existence of one Dick Cheney, let alone expecting you to read a yet-to-be-determined number of words regarding such. If you’re smart enough to avoid corporate media – I clearly am not – you have not had the misfortune of seeing the increasingly lifeless form of the mastermind (for want of a better word) of the Bush administration’s policy of starting illegal wars, torturing detainees and outing CIA operatives, among countless other dirty deeds, on his current book tour.

Mr. Death is touting his memoir – I Was Right and I Can Have You Killed, or whatever it’s called, in his attempt to revise history, congratulate himself on a job well done and continue to scare the shit out of small children and animals accidentally exposed to the TV screen at an inopportune moment.

Cheney, rather than mellowing with age and rusting parts, is taking the time he has left to double down on his heinous tenure as part of the executive and/or legislative branch depending on who’s asking. Showing the polar opposite of regret for any of the actions for which the entire nation bears not only regret but abject disgrace, Cheney waxed nostalgic for the good old days when waterboarding produced all that great intelligence. It still pains this writer to hear the word intelligence used in any context having to do with the Cheney/Bush regime.

Mr. (and I use the term loosely) Cheney expressed not one shred of remorse for vigorously ignoring overwhelming intelligence pointing to what turned out to be the September 11, 2001 attacks. “I know we could have anticipated those attacks,” wheezed the withering ex-VP, “

To paraphrase Dick in print......."Hell, almost everyone else in the entire world, including our own intelligence community saw this coming.   A few sources even handed me exact addresses, but I had other fish to fry, so I relied on my own private intelligence agency. And 9/11 turned out to be one of the best things that happened during those years – and not just for Rudy Giulliani or Little George’s poll numbers. We were able to ram through the otherwise Constitution-dismembering PATRIOT Act, which just happened to be sitting on my desk, start – well not start but expose to the public – an extensive illegal wiretapping program and all kinds of other democracy-squashing agendas I’ve been drooling over for decades. You can’t expect a patriot like me to pass up a deal like that. Even that Marxist, socialist Kenyan Obama is carrying on with most of what I put in place. It’s only because of my hard work he managed to kill bin Laden. Go f**k yourself.”

The heartless, soulless Cheney most recently made it clear that he felt he was owed an apology from Barack Obama. "They criticized us for 'overreacting' to the events of 9/11. Now they clearly had moved in the direction of taking robust action.... I think the president owes everybody an apology, frankly."* (*actual quote…seriously.)

It’s not that hard to understand that one of the most shameful characters in American history might expect an actually elected president to apologize for standing against war crimes Cheney oversaw if not in fact undertook personally.

After all, this Great American Dick managed to get an apology from the man he shot in the face. So pardon me while I go f**K myself.

The Official GOP Campaign Button

A tip of  my oh so liberal and progressive hat to  This Week  for this fabulous cartoon. This is just perfect and I am wondering why nobody is mentioning Jon Huntsman on a button or anywhere else. 

He's the only Republican candidate who makes any sense..... oh, right-- maybe that's the problem.

Never mind.   Have a nice week-end

Why The 99% Are Pissed Off

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Why do the Sunday media pundits keep saying that the Occupy Wall Street movement lacks focus and coherence?  Huh? Fox News called them anarchists. New York  Mayor Bloomberg  just a few days ago called them " bad for the city"   Seems like the powerful 1%  is totally out of touch with the 99% whose voices are growing louder every day and whose demands are very clear indeed. 

They have been down there since September 17th and their numbers keep growing. It's not just Wall Street Anymore.  The movement is quickly going global with simultaneous events planned all over the world via social media. These are not just disgruntled students and out of work agitators. They are regular, ordinary people from all walks of life and they are pissed, but in the main peaceful. 

Who says they are not organized ?  Check out their live stream if you want a minute to minute update from Wall Street and a taste of the energy of this protest.  Real grass roots movements coalesce and grow organically like this one.  They don't spring full grown from the bowels of  conservative foundations and think tanks like the Tea Party movement did.  This is the stuff that real revolutions are made of.

 The video explains it all simply enough so that even a TV talking head can understand. Watch the video. Watch the whole thing and pass it along.OK? Take it viral and tell the world.  Oh and  a big round of applause for DC Douglas  .