Updates and Corrections: Dickweeds, Penises, and Jeff Sessions:
Correction: Earlier this week, the Rude Pundit said that "Herman Cain really likes to bang (or try to bang) white women." Apparently, Ginger White, with whom Cain allegedly had a 13-year affair, is, despite her deceptive name, black. So Herman Cain's penis knows no racial prejudice. He is, however, a scumsucking corporate piggy, no matter what his penis has done.
Clarification: Several sources said that Ann Coulter was bleeped on Morning Joe on MSNBC on Monday because she called John McCain a "douchebag." She has clarified that, in fact, she called him a "dickweed." What has not been clarified is why Ann Coulter, who this week wrote, for the 8 billionth time, about Bill Clinton and Paula Jones, is considered relevant in any conversation.
Update: Amendment 1274 to the National Defense Authorization Act, proposed by Alabama Republican Jeff Sessions, failed last night by a 41-59 vote. The amendment said that, if you're an enemy combatant that wins some kind of lottery and actually gets a trial, your potential acquittal does not mean you will be freed. Apparently, the Senate decided that other language in the bill that says someone can be held forever covered it. The bill itself passed 93-7.
Oh, and here's the Rude Pundit on Monday's Stephanie Miller Show:
12/01/2011
Other Skeevy Shit in the National Defense Authorization Act:
Oh, sure, sure, the Senate's codifying the detention and denial of habeas corpus that's been going on, with the added bonus that, in addition to killing the fuck out of Americans, the President can say, "Yeah, you're an enemy combatant. Welcome to Gitmo." To his credit, Barack Obama has said, "Umm, no," and threatened a veto, although that probably has more to do with allowing some kind of congressional involvement than anything we might think of as moral qualms.
But the NDAA is bursting with skeevy shit, in the debate and non-debate that's gone on.
There's Alabama's Jeff Sessions' Amendment 1274, still up for a vote, which says, according to Sessions, "an unlawful combatant or a combatant who is held by the U.S. military for being an enemy of the United States, a combatant against the United States, or an unlawful combatant, is not therefore entitled to be released if the U.S. military or the civilian courts choose to prosecute him and he is acquitted or after he serves his sentence but before hostilities have ended." You got that? Even if we've held someone for years in legal suspended animation, if that prisoner should actually get some kind of trial and if, with all the rules being against him, he happens to get acquitted, he'll still be stuck in custody until he dies or the war ends, which it never will. Call this the "we're such pussies in America" rule.
This led to South Carolina's Lindsey Graham, who has had a such a boner for detention without charge or trial that it's practically slapping John McCain in the face, to say, "[I]f you take the ability to hold someone as an enemy combatant off the table, you cannot interrogate them for intelligence-gathering purposes, and if you put a time limit on how long you can hold them, you defeat the purpose of gathering intelligence." You might think that someone held for a decade would have no useful intelligence left and could possibly be set free, if he's acquitted in a, you know, fair trial. But you'd be a traitor who wants the two remaining al-Qaeda members to fuck your dog and gut your daughters.
Of course, yea or nay, at least Sessions' amendment got debated. The same can't be said for Amendment 1120. That said that women in the military who get pregnant by rape can have their abortions paid for by the military. New Hampshire Democrat Janine Shaheen introduced it, and, because there were important things to be passed, like the aforementioned Christmas Tree Week, 1120 got designated as "non-germane." Apparently, a defense funding bill is not the place to discuss the funds of soldiers.
Oh, yeah, that and making sure that military chaplains don't have to perform marriage ceremonies for the gays. That passed. The House version of the NDAA specifically banned chaplains from doing the deed. The Senate version just says that it's up to the chaplain. Actually, it's kind of funny. It just says that any chaplain "who as a matter of conscience or moral principle does not wish to perform a marriage, may not be required to do so," which means that Father Mulcahy could say, "Fuck you, Klinger. I think marrying Koreans is icky." By the way, this amendment was proposed by some who-the-fuck-cares-what-his-name-is Mississippi senator, thus completing this blog post's trifecta of shitbag southern Republicans.
So a fun clusterfuck of culture wars and legal wars while still funding, without question or clarity, the war wars.
Oh, sure, sure, the Senate's codifying the detention and denial of habeas corpus that's been going on, with the added bonus that, in addition to killing the fuck out of Americans, the President can say, "Yeah, you're an enemy combatant. Welcome to Gitmo." To his credit, Barack Obama has said, "Umm, no," and threatened a veto, although that probably has more to do with allowing some kind of congressional involvement than anything we might think of as moral qualms.
But the NDAA is bursting with skeevy shit, in the debate and non-debate that's gone on.
There's Alabama's Jeff Sessions' Amendment 1274, still up for a vote, which says, according to Sessions, "an unlawful combatant or a combatant who is held by the U.S. military for being an enemy of the United States, a combatant against the United States, or an unlawful combatant, is not therefore entitled to be released if the U.S. military or the civilian courts choose to prosecute him and he is acquitted or after he serves his sentence but before hostilities have ended." You got that? Even if we've held someone for years in legal suspended animation, if that prisoner should actually get some kind of trial and if, with all the rules being against him, he happens to get acquitted, he'll still be stuck in custody until he dies or the war ends, which it never will. Call this the "we're such pussies in America" rule.
This led to South Carolina's Lindsey Graham, who has had a such a boner for detention without charge or trial that it's practically slapping John McCain in the face, to say, "[I]f you take the ability to hold someone as an enemy combatant off the table, you cannot interrogate them for intelligence-gathering purposes, and if you put a time limit on how long you can hold them, you defeat the purpose of gathering intelligence." You might think that someone held for a decade would have no useful intelligence left and could possibly be set free, if he's acquitted in a, you know, fair trial. But you'd be a traitor who wants the two remaining al-Qaeda members to fuck your dog and gut your daughters.
Of course, yea or nay, at least Sessions' amendment got debated. The same can't be said for Amendment 1120. That said that women in the military who get pregnant by rape can have their abortions paid for by the military. New Hampshire Democrat Janine Shaheen introduced it, and, because there were important things to be passed, like the aforementioned Christmas Tree Week, 1120 got designated as "non-germane." Apparently, a defense funding bill is not the place to discuss the funds of soldiers.
Oh, yeah, that and making sure that military chaplains don't have to perform marriage ceremonies for the gays. That passed. The House version of the NDAA specifically banned chaplains from doing the deed. The Senate version just says that it's up to the chaplain. Actually, it's kind of funny. It just says that any chaplain "who as a matter of conscience or moral principle does not wish to perform a marriage, may not be required to do so," which means that Father Mulcahy could say, "Fuck you, Klinger. I think marrying Koreans is icky." By the way, this amendment was proposed by some who-the-fuck-cares-what-his-name-is Mississippi senator, thus completing this blog post's trifecta of shitbag southern Republicans.
So a fun clusterfuck of culture wars and legal wars while still funding, without question or clarity, the war wars.
Late Post Today, But Enjoy Your Senate at Work:
This is a real thing the Senate did yesterday in-between debating whether or not you can be held without trial if the President says so until every eeevil Mooslim is daid:
"Mr. MERKLEY (for himself, Mr. Burr, Ms. Snowe, Mr. Wyden, Mrs. Murray, Mrs. Feinstein, Mr. Casey, Ms. Cantwell and Ms. Collins) submitted the following resolution; which was considered and agreed to:
S. Res. 341
Whereas Christmas trees are grown in all 50 States;
Whereas Christmas trees have been sold commercially in the United States since about 1850;
Whereas Edward Johnson, assistant to Thomas Edison, came up with the idea of electric lights for Christmas trees in 1882;
Whereas President Calvin Coolidge started the National Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony on the White House lawn in 1923;
Whereas there are close to 15,000 farms growing Christmas trees in the United States;
Whereas there are approximately 100,000 people employed full or part-time in the Christmas tree industry;
Whereas Christmas tree farms in the United States planted approximately 35,000,000 Christmas trees in 2011 to replace those harvested in 2010; and
Whereas growing Christmas trees preserves green space and small family-owned farms, provides habitats for wildlife, and sequesters carbon dioxide: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the Senate--
(1) designates the first full week of December in 2011 as 'National Christmas Tree Week';
(2) encourages the celebration of Christmas trees during that week;
(3) recognizes the role Christmas trees have played in the history of the United States;
(4) reaffirms the environmental benefits of Christmas tree farms and recycled Christmas trees;
(5) encourages the recycling of Christmas trees after the holiday season; and
(6) celebrates the joy Christmas trees bring to families across the United States."
You'll notice that it does not mention God. It passed without objection.
Back in a bit with more combatant rudeness.
This is a real thing the Senate did yesterday in-between debating whether or not you can be held without trial if the President says so until every eeevil Mooslim is daid:
"Mr. MERKLEY (for himself, Mr. Burr, Ms. Snowe, Mr. Wyden, Mrs. Murray, Mrs. Feinstein, Mr. Casey, Ms. Cantwell and Ms. Collins) submitted the following resolution; which was considered and agreed to:
S. Res. 341
Whereas Christmas trees are grown in all 50 States;
Whereas Christmas trees have been sold commercially in the United States since about 1850;
Whereas Edward Johnson, assistant to Thomas Edison, came up with the idea of electric lights for Christmas trees in 1882;
Whereas President Calvin Coolidge started the National Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony on the White House lawn in 1923;
Whereas there are close to 15,000 farms growing Christmas trees in the United States;
Whereas there are approximately 100,000 people employed full or part-time in the Christmas tree industry;
Whereas Christmas tree farms in the United States planted approximately 35,000,000 Christmas trees in 2011 to replace those harvested in 2010; and
Whereas growing Christmas trees preserves green space and small family-owned farms, provides habitats for wildlife, and sequesters carbon dioxide: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the Senate--
(1) designates the first full week of December in 2011 as 'National Christmas Tree Week';
(2) encourages the celebration of Christmas trees during that week;
(3) recognizes the role Christmas trees have played in the history of the United States;
(4) reaffirms the environmental benefits of Christmas tree farms and recycled Christmas trees;
(5) encourages the recycling of Christmas trees after the holiday season; and
(6) celebrates the joy Christmas trees bring to families across the United States."
You'll notice that it does not mention God. It passed without objection.
Back in a bit with more combatant rudeness.
11/30/2011
The End of the Occupy Camps Is the Start of the Next Phase:
Last night, in Philadelphia and Los Angeles, the police moved in by the hundreds to clear out the Occupy encampments. In L.A., Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa used the tiredest excuse of them all: think about the children. In a city with at least 13,500 homeless kids (and that's just the ones that show up at schools), L.A. probably could have spent the money it used for the 1400 cops and 200 arrests at the City Hall camp on, say, housing some of the kids who don't want to be on the streets.
You can bet that we'll be hearing about more crackdowns as the winter progresses, until almost all the camps are gone. And to that, the Rude Pundit says, "Finally."
Don't get him wrong. He fully supports the occupiers and their colonization of urban spaces, the footholds of American renewal. He even understands why defending the camps has become so important. For some, whether fresh-faced, middle-class college student or unemployed middle-aged homeless person, the camps are a taste of what power and democracy are like. They are a small victory in a concrete swamp of constant indignity and degradation. Smelly, ugly, and full of sloppy dissent, the Rude Pundit thought they were beautiful. It's why he wanted and still wants people to donate stuff to the remaining encampments. If they're gonna stay, then he wants these hippie harbingers of the future fight to be safe and warm.
But the camps need to be seen for what they are and what they've accomplished: they had to come into being in order to show that there are large numbers of people willing to put their bodies on the line for a cause. They needed to remind us that the public square is not virtual and that civic engagement in the real world is necessary and vital for the reclamation of the country. That has been done. But right now the media is focusing too much on the camps as symbols and their eviction as a loss, with some even portraying the evictions as a victory over an ill-prepared, misguided, easily-mocked group of anarchists and leeches. Don't let the fuckers have the victory. Don't let them take back the narrative.
Of course the occupations have to be destroyed by the police. That was the point, wasn't it? Draw out the authorities. Get them to respond to your actions. Transform yourself into beings with your own agency, no longer objects to be acted upon. And how does that not bait the ones with the batons and the pepper spray and the ones who order them to attack?
The Rude Pundit doesn't mourn the end of the encampments in the same way he didn't mourn moving from teenage years to adulthood. Now we've seen that action is possible, that community is possible, that mass public support is possible. It's time to move to targeted direct action, and, no, that doesn't mean supporting candidates for election. That's bullshit co-opting and dilution of the movement. Leave that to Occupy Wall Street's sympathizers. It means direct confrontation, like the new effort to stop foreclosures from occurring. (The Rude Pundit will be out there next Tuesday.)
And it means that Adbusters had it right when it declared, in the heated environment after New York was shut down, "We will turn this winter into a training ground for precision disruptions – flashmobs, stink bombs, edgy theatrics – against the megacorps and the unrepentant 1%, a festival of resistance in the snow with, or without, an encampment that'll lay the tactical foundation for our Spring Offensive."
While we need to take care of the outdoor occupiers, we cannot cling to slivers of land when we have a nation to take back.
Last night, in Philadelphia and Los Angeles, the police moved in by the hundreds to clear out the Occupy encampments. In L.A., Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa used the tiredest excuse of them all: think about the children. In a city with at least 13,500 homeless kids (and that's just the ones that show up at schools), L.A. probably could have spent the money it used for the 1400 cops and 200 arrests at the City Hall camp on, say, housing some of the kids who don't want to be on the streets.
You can bet that we'll be hearing about more crackdowns as the winter progresses, until almost all the camps are gone. And to that, the Rude Pundit says, "Finally."
Don't get him wrong. He fully supports the occupiers and their colonization of urban spaces, the footholds of American renewal. He even understands why defending the camps has become so important. For some, whether fresh-faced, middle-class college student or unemployed middle-aged homeless person, the camps are a taste of what power and democracy are like. They are a small victory in a concrete swamp of constant indignity and degradation. Smelly, ugly, and full of sloppy dissent, the Rude Pundit thought they were beautiful. It's why he wanted and still wants people to donate stuff to the remaining encampments. If they're gonna stay, then he wants these hippie harbingers of the future fight to be safe and warm.
But the camps need to be seen for what they are and what they've accomplished: they had to come into being in order to show that there are large numbers of people willing to put their bodies on the line for a cause. They needed to remind us that the public square is not virtual and that civic engagement in the real world is necessary and vital for the reclamation of the country. That has been done. But right now the media is focusing too much on the camps as symbols and their eviction as a loss, with some even portraying the evictions as a victory over an ill-prepared, misguided, easily-mocked group of anarchists and leeches. Don't let the fuckers have the victory. Don't let them take back the narrative.
Of course the occupations have to be destroyed by the police. That was the point, wasn't it? Draw out the authorities. Get them to respond to your actions. Transform yourself into beings with your own agency, no longer objects to be acted upon. And how does that not bait the ones with the batons and the pepper spray and the ones who order them to attack?
The Rude Pundit doesn't mourn the end of the encampments in the same way he didn't mourn moving from teenage years to adulthood. Now we've seen that action is possible, that community is possible, that mass public support is possible. It's time to move to targeted direct action, and, no, that doesn't mean supporting candidates for election. That's bullshit co-opting and dilution of the movement. Leave that to Occupy Wall Street's sympathizers. It means direct confrontation, like the new effort to stop foreclosures from occurring. (The Rude Pundit will be out there next Tuesday.)
And it means that Adbusters had it right when it declared, in the heated environment after New York was shut down, "We will turn this winter into a training ground for precision disruptions – flashmobs, stink bombs, edgy theatrics – against the megacorps and the unrepentant 1%, a festival of resistance in the snow with, or without, an encampment that'll lay the tactical foundation for our Spring Offensive."
While we need to take care of the outdoor occupiers, we cannot cling to slivers of land when we have a nation to take back.
11/29/2011
A Brief List of Obvious Things That Should Be Obvious:
1. Today's New York Times contains an editorial titled "Reporting Abuse" that says, in essence, "Hey, if you catch a grown-up fucking a child, you gotta tell the police." For some reason, when it comes to college coaches (or, you know, priests), this simple, obvious action has to be explained. So, to be clear, if you know someone's fucking a kid, don't tell your coach. Don't tell your administrator. Tell the cops. If you need this explained to you more than once, you should be arrested, too.
2. If you invite Ann Coulter onto your nice TV show, she will act cunty. On Morning Starbucks today, Coulter, who had been invited on by smug host Joe Scarborough over an exchange on Twitter, was bleeped out for calling John McCain a "douchebag" (he's more of a colostomy bag, so the edit's understandable). And then she called Ted Kennedy a "human pestilence," which led Team Joe to spend a great deal of time, post-cunt, praising and fluffing the reputation of Kennedy. Remember: A good 90% of Coulter's material comes from dissing Ted Kennedy.
3. Really? The right-wing psycho who killed 77 people in a Norway shooting spree is actually a psycho? Huh. Go figure.
4. Herman Cain really likes to bang (or try to bang) white women. The obvious thing here: wait, you mean a skeevy lobbyist and poisonous food hawker turned out to be a skeevy human being? How could we even think about not electing him president? Oh, and he's thinking of getting out of the campaign now. Just two days too late. Extra bonus humor points: Cain's lawyer saying that "No individual...should be questioned about his or her private sexual life." What country has he been living in?
5. If you're a cop and you're in hot pursuit of an old man on a bicycle who, at best, might be a little drunk, don't tase him. Just, you know, don't.
The sad part is how long this post could go on. Really? The Federal Reserve made secret deals with banks that allowed them to make billions of dollars with taxpayer bailout money? Really? We're gonna keep learning what an execrable scumfucker Rupert Murdoch and his employees are?
It'd be nice, every now and then, to just be pleasantly surprised that someone you wouldn't expect behaved with honor.
1. Today's New York Times contains an editorial titled "Reporting Abuse" that says, in essence, "Hey, if you catch a grown-up fucking a child, you gotta tell the police." For some reason, when it comes to college coaches (or, you know, priests), this simple, obvious action has to be explained. So, to be clear, if you know someone's fucking a kid, don't tell your coach. Don't tell your administrator. Tell the cops. If you need this explained to you more than once, you should be arrested, too.
2. If you invite Ann Coulter onto your nice TV show, she will act cunty. On Morning Starbucks today, Coulter, who had been invited on by smug host Joe Scarborough over an exchange on Twitter, was bleeped out for calling John McCain a "douchebag" (he's more of a colostomy bag, so the edit's understandable). And then she called Ted Kennedy a "human pestilence," which led Team Joe to spend a great deal of time, post-cunt, praising and fluffing the reputation of Kennedy. Remember: A good 90% of Coulter's material comes from dissing Ted Kennedy.
3. Really? The right-wing psycho who killed 77 people in a Norway shooting spree is actually a psycho? Huh. Go figure.
4. Herman Cain really likes to bang (or try to bang) white women. The obvious thing here: wait, you mean a skeevy lobbyist and poisonous food hawker turned out to be a skeevy human being? How could we even think about not electing him president? Oh, and he's thinking of getting out of the campaign now. Just two days too late. Extra bonus humor points: Cain's lawyer saying that "No individual...should be questioned about his or her private sexual life." What country has he been living in?
5. If you're a cop and you're in hot pursuit of an old man on a bicycle who, at best, might be a little drunk, don't tase him. Just, you know, don't.
The sad part is how long this post could go on. Really? The Federal Reserve made secret deals with banks that allowed them to make billions of dollars with taxpayer bailout money? Really? We're gonna keep learning what an execrable scumfucker Rupert Murdoch and his employees are?
It'd be nice, every now and then, to just be pleasantly surprised that someone you wouldn't expect behaved with honor.
11/28/2011
We Came, We Conversed, We Blanketed:
Small gestures of kindness are not worthless. Around the nation, rude readers used Black Friday (or other Thanksgiving weekend days) to avoid the pepper-spraying rioters at Wal-Mart and instead brought blankets and sweaters and hoodies and food to their local occupations in an effort called "Blanket the Earth." Here's a few of the activities and sites:
From the tireless Denise Wirtz, who organized people for Occupy Atlanta.
From Becki in Austin with Bonnie and Karen, fellow BtE activists. Don't laugh. It gets cold at night.
From Sylvia Martin, who was one of several people who dropped off items in Boston.
The Rude Pundit, Nielsen Hayden, and others dropped off clothes and more in Zuccotti Park, NYC, where we were thanked by the human mike. The items were being handed out before we even left the metal barricaded area, more a hippie zoo than a protest site now. The action is elsewhere. The city is the occupation site now.
Other people showed up throughout the weekend in DC, Sacramento, Des Moines, and elsewhere, literally coast to coast, and in Vancouver, BC. It was an international effort to give aid and comfort to the occupiers.
Thanks to everyone who brought stuff and everyone who engaged with the occupiers, even as we enter what might become a post-encampment strategy.
Small gestures of kindness are not worthless. Around the nation, rude readers used Black Friday (or other Thanksgiving weekend days) to avoid the pepper-spraying rioters at Wal-Mart and instead brought blankets and sweaters and hoodies and food to their local occupations in an effort called "Blanket the Earth." Here's a few of the activities and sites:
From the tireless Denise Wirtz, who organized people for Occupy Atlanta.
From Becki in Austin with Bonnie and Karen, fellow BtE activists. Don't laugh. It gets cold at night.
From Sylvia Martin, who was one of several people who dropped off items in Boston.
The Rude Pundit, Nielsen Hayden, and others dropped off clothes and more in Zuccotti Park, NYC, where we were thanked by the human mike. The items were being handed out before we even left the metal barricaded area, more a hippie zoo than a protest site now. The action is elsewhere. The city is the occupation site now.
Other people showed up throughout the weekend in DC, Sacramento, Des Moines, and elsewhere, literally coast to coast, and in Vancouver, BC. It was an international effort to give aid and comfort to the occupiers.
Thanks to everyone who brought stuff and everyone who engaged with the occupiers, even as we enter what might become a post-encampment strategy.
Newt Gingrich Is Nothing You Want Him To Be:
First off, someone oughta point out that the Manchester Union-Leader, New Hampshire's largest daily newspaper (which means it has ten readers), is a shitty conservative rag that makes the Washington Times look erudite. Today's top news includes a warning that says, no, really, "Commuters should take it slow today since New Hampshire State Police will be out in force targeting aggressive and distracted drivers during heavy commuting hours" and crimes that involve a purse-snatcher and a crack whore, not to mention the safe return of an elderly woman who wandered away from her nursing home. This is not to belittle the snow-burdened people of the...what the fuck are you? The beaver state? The Show Me state? Live Free or Suck a Dick?...whatever...but, surely, a real newspaper would report on more than randomly lost old people and how super-great right-wingers are.
Granite state, right? Yeah, that's it. Anyways...
Also today, in a way-too-symbolic article, the paper talks about an "invasion" of feral swine in the state, which dovetails nicely with its endorsement of Newt Gingrich for president.
In its editorial supporting the former Speaker of the House, the Union-Leader says, "The pigs are between 100 and 300 pounds with rough hair, tusks and rapier-sharp teeth...They are difficult to hunt, wily, and 'ornery animals you don’t want to fool with,'" and "'We are concerned about their presence' primarily for ecological reasons."
Actually, that makes more sense in discussing Gingrich than what the editors actually wrote: "A lot of candidates say they're going to improve Washington. Newt Gingrich has actually done that." That's like saying that Godzilla was responsible for a great deal of urban renewal in Tokyo. Gingrich is one of the primary reasons that Washington sucks so hard and that Congress has become a worthless clusterfuck that actually works against the good of the nation. He teed it all up.
In October 1995, Gingrich told an audience at Jerry Falwell's Liberty University that if Democrats and the President don't agree to his budget plan, "fine, they won't have any money to run the parts of the Government they like, and we'll see what happens." He wanted Medicare to "wither on the vine." He blamed liberals for everything from Columbine to Susan Smith's drowning of her children. The fucking government shut down because of him. But, hey, sure, yeah, he improved the place.
Have fun, supposedly rational, realistic conservatives who are thrilled at the Gingrich surge. Not only is he an amoral, corrupt, faux-intellectual who windbags his way around the nation, but he also believes in science and technology. He wanted more government spending on medical technology for information-sharing. He actually think science education based on, you know, science is a good thing.
When, now, he hedges on whether or not he believes in evolution, it'll be awesome when Michele Bachmann trots out this 2006 quote from a Discover magazine interview: "Evolution certainly seems to express the closest understanding we can now have [about how we came to be]." Or this one: "I believe evolution should be taught as science, and intelligent design should be taught as philosophy." Or, on another hot-button topic, "I would not seek to ban research on stem cells in fertility clinics." Or "Unlike right-wingers who would say, 'Since we don't know 100 percent for sure, we can keep carbon loading,' I'd say there is enough evidence that it's reasonable to try to move toward renewables, to try to move toward conservation, to try to move toward a hydrogen economy."
Sure, he says the opposite now. But have fun convincing the Iowa and South Carolina and, yes, New Hampshire yahoos that Gingrich is on their side.
By the way, the wild boars are not native to New Hampshire. But hunters so want to hunt them that they've been illegally imported from Tennessee and Georgia and elsewhere. The problem is that once the Southern pigs get in, they multiply and destroy everything they can get their tusks on.
First off, someone oughta point out that the Manchester Union-Leader, New Hampshire's largest daily newspaper (which means it has ten readers), is a shitty conservative rag that makes the Washington Times look erudite. Today's top news includes a warning that says, no, really, "Commuters should take it slow today since New Hampshire State Police will be out in force targeting aggressive and distracted drivers during heavy commuting hours" and crimes that involve a purse-snatcher and a crack whore, not to mention the safe return of an elderly woman who wandered away from her nursing home. This is not to belittle the snow-burdened people of the...what the fuck are you? The beaver state? The Show Me state? Live Free or Suck a Dick?...whatever...but, surely, a real newspaper would report on more than randomly lost old people and how super-great right-wingers are.
Granite state, right? Yeah, that's it. Anyways...
Also today, in a way-too-symbolic article, the paper talks about an "invasion" of feral swine in the state, which dovetails nicely with its endorsement of Newt Gingrich for president.
In its editorial supporting the former Speaker of the House, the Union-Leader says, "The pigs are between 100 and 300 pounds with rough hair, tusks and rapier-sharp teeth...They are difficult to hunt, wily, and 'ornery animals you don’t want to fool with,'" and "'We are concerned about their presence' primarily for ecological reasons."
Actually, that makes more sense in discussing Gingrich than what the editors actually wrote: "A lot of candidates say they're going to improve Washington. Newt Gingrich has actually done that." That's like saying that Godzilla was responsible for a great deal of urban renewal in Tokyo. Gingrich is one of the primary reasons that Washington sucks so hard and that Congress has become a worthless clusterfuck that actually works against the good of the nation. He teed it all up.
In October 1995, Gingrich told an audience at Jerry Falwell's Liberty University that if Democrats and the President don't agree to his budget plan, "fine, they won't have any money to run the parts of the Government they like, and we'll see what happens." He wanted Medicare to "wither on the vine." He blamed liberals for everything from Columbine to Susan Smith's drowning of her children. The fucking government shut down because of him. But, hey, sure, yeah, he improved the place.
Have fun, supposedly rational, realistic conservatives who are thrilled at the Gingrich surge. Not only is he an amoral, corrupt, faux-intellectual who windbags his way around the nation, but he also believes in science and technology. He wanted more government spending on medical technology for information-sharing. He actually think science education based on, you know, science is a good thing.
When, now, he hedges on whether or not he believes in evolution, it'll be awesome when Michele Bachmann trots out this 2006 quote from a Discover magazine interview: "Evolution certainly seems to express the closest understanding we can now have [about how we came to be]." Or this one: "I believe evolution should be taught as science, and intelligent design should be taught as philosophy." Or, on another hot-button topic, "I would not seek to ban research on stem cells in fertility clinics." Or "Unlike right-wingers who would say, 'Since we don't know 100 percent for sure, we can keep carbon loading,' I'd say there is enough evidence that it's reasonable to try to move toward renewables, to try to move toward conservation, to try to move toward a hydrogen economy."
Sure, he says the opposite now. But have fun convincing the Iowa and South Carolina and, yes, New Hampshire yahoos that Gingrich is on their side.
By the way, the wild boars are not native to New Hampshire. But hunters so want to hunt them that they've been illegally imported from Tennessee and Georgia and elsewhere. The problem is that once the Southern pigs get in, they multiply and destroy everything they can get their tusks on.
11/25/2011
Blanketing the Occupiers Today:
The Rude Pundit will be at Zuccotti Park at 2 p.m. today under the big red metal sculpture (or, you know, Joie de Vivre by Mark di Suvero). If there's a group meeting going on there, he'll be next to it. He'll have a garbage bag of sweaters and gloves and such.
Let the Rude Pundit know if you did head out today to donate cold weather gear to your local Occupy site. Some readers have already done so. And take a picture or two to send in to this blog. Some of 'em will be posted here or on Facebook.
Austin at 2 p.m. looks like it's gonna be a party of blanketeers, as will Atlanta from 3-6 p.m. Get all your info to see if there's a gathering in your town. And if you're on your own, enjoy the fall day at the occupation.
On Monday, your regularly-scheduled rudeness will return.
But for today, let's do a small, good thing for the protesters we've celebrated for the last two and a half months. Thanks to all who have worked hard so far. And to all who turn out.
The Rude Pundit will be at Zuccotti Park at 2 p.m. today under the big red metal sculpture (or, you know, Joie de Vivre by Mark di Suvero). If there's a group meeting going on there, he'll be next to it. He'll have a garbage bag of sweaters and gloves and such.
Let the Rude Pundit know if you did head out today to donate cold weather gear to your local Occupy site. Some readers have already done so. And take a picture or two to send in to this blog. Some of 'em will be posted here or on Facebook.
Austin at 2 p.m. looks like it's gonna be a party of blanketeers, as will Atlanta from 3-6 p.m. Get all your info to see if there's a gathering in your town. And if you're on your own, enjoy the fall day at the occupation.
On Monday, your regularly-scheduled rudeness will return.
But for today, let's do a small, good thing for the protesters we've celebrated for the last two and a half months. Thanks to all who have worked hard so far. And to all who turn out.
11/24/2011
Finalizing Plans for Friday's Blanket the Earth Donations (Update):
(Bumping this up to the top of the page. Let the Rude Pundit know if you're participating.)
The Rude Pundit has been getting the word out in every venue he can over your internets. This Friday, a Black one, we've been told, he wants people to head down to their local Occupy (name of your city) site, should there still be one, and donate cold weather gear (blankets, sweaters, gloves, you know, the usual things) or anything to help those encamped and those holding outdoor protests make it through the quickly coming winter. The idea has been for it to not simply be donations, but for people to go to the Occupy groups to show support.
He appreciates all those who have chimed in that they're going to do so. Some are more organized than others, as is the way with we on the left.
Here's a few definite meet-up times and places:
Atlanta: Meet at Woodruff Park (aka "Troy Davis Park") from 3-6 p.m. to gather any donated items. At 6 p.m., head over to Occupy Atlanta to make the donation. (Thanks to the awesome Denise at Pros/e/yes for her organizing.)
(Bumping this up to the top of the page. Let the Rude Pundit know if you're participating.)
The Rude Pundit has been getting the word out in every venue he can over your internets. This Friday, a Black one, we've been told, he wants people to head down to their local Occupy (name of your city) site, should there still be one, and donate cold weather gear (blankets, sweaters, gloves, you know, the usual things) or anything to help those encamped and those holding outdoor protests make it through the quickly coming winter. The idea has been for it to not simply be donations, but for people to go to the Occupy groups to show support.
He appreciates all those who have chimed in that they're going to do so. Some are more organized than others, as is the way with we on the left.
Here's a few definite meet-up times and places:
Atlanta: Meet at Woodruff Park (aka "Troy Davis Park") from 3-6 p.m. to gather any donated items. At 6 p.m., head over to Occupy Atlanta to make the donation. (Thanks to the awesome Denise at Pros/e/yes for her organizing.)
Austin: Meet at City Hall at 2 p.m. (Thanks to Beckinham.)
Washington, DC: Meet at 2 p.m. at the southeast corner of Freedom Square, by 13th and Pennsylvania before heading to Occupy DC. (Thanks to also awesome Violetta.)
New York City: Meet the Rude Pundit at the red metal sculpture at the southeast corner of Zuccotti Park at 2 p.m. and, since the donation tent is no more, we'll head down to 52 Broadway, where there's a stockpile of donated goods. (Drop a line if you're gonna meet up in NYC.)
Others from Los Angeles, Chicago, Chapel Hill, Pocatello, and elsewhere have said they are heading to donate. There are even some groups doing so. If any of them are reading, come up with a time and place and send it to rudepundit_at_yahoo.com so the Rude Pundit can post it here and at the BtE Facebook page and Twitter. Remember: "organizing" can be as simple as saying, "Hey, why don't we meet here?" Do not fear it.
Let's be honest: there's a chance you may be flying solo on this in your town. That's okay. And there's a chance that the numbers will dwindle to zero at the encampments by the dead of winter (or be raided and broken up). That's okay, too. Places like Chicago, Detroit, and NYC have ongoing actions without camps. What the Rude Pundit wants to accomplish is, yes, the aid and comfort provided by some nice wool socks. But it's also a physical demonstration that the occupations are just one part of a movement that spreads far beyond the parks and lawns where protesters are camped.
Actions are loud, man. Way louder than anything we tap, tap, tap out on our laptops.
(Note: take pics of your BtE action and they'll be tossed up on the blog this weekend. Also, later today, he'll have a complete list of contacts at Facebook.)
Boston: Meet a green-jacketed woman with plastic bins, in front of South Station at 9 a.m. (Thanks, Sylvia. And if anyone wants to organize a later time, let us know.)
Washington, DC: Meet at 2 p.m. at the southeast corner of Freedom Square, by 13th and Pennsylvania before heading to Occupy DC. (Thanks to also awesome Violetta.)
New York City: Meet the Rude Pundit at the red metal sculpture at the southeast corner of Zuccotti Park at 2 p.m. and, since the donation tent is no more, we'll head down to 52 Broadway, where there's a stockpile of donated goods. (Drop a line if you're gonna meet up in NYC.)
Others from Los Angeles, Chicago, Chapel Hill, Pocatello, and elsewhere have said they are heading to donate. There are even some groups doing so. If any of them are reading, come up with a time and place and send it to rudepundit_at_yahoo.com so the Rude Pundit can post it here and at the BtE Facebook page and Twitter. Remember: "organizing" can be as simple as saying, "Hey, why don't we meet here?" Do not fear it.
Let's be honest: there's a chance you may be flying solo on this in your town. That's okay. And there's a chance that the numbers will dwindle to zero at the encampments by the dead of winter (or be raided and broken up). That's okay, too. Places like Chicago, Detroit, and NYC have ongoing actions without camps. What the Rude Pundit wants to accomplish is, yes, the aid and comfort provided by some nice wool socks. But it's also a physical demonstration that the occupations are just one part of a movement that spreads far beyond the parks and lawns where protesters are camped.
Actions are loud, man. Way louder than anything we tap, tap, tap out on our laptops.
(Note: take pics of your BtE action and they'll be tossed up on the blog this weekend. Also, later today, he'll have a complete list of contacts at Facebook.)
A Dark Poem from the Conquered for Thanksgiving in Desperate Times:
A piece of the poem "[Long Time Gone]" by Leslie Marmon Silko, who is a member of the Laguna Pueblo tribe. In order to win a contest in ancient times in America about who has the greatest powers, a witch doesn't cast spells or conjure. She tells the future to witches from all the native tribes:
Okay
go ahead
laugh if you want to
but as I tell the story
it will begin to happen.
Set in motion now
set in motion by our witchery
to work for us.
Caves across the ocean
in caves of dark hills
white skin people
like the belly of a fish
covered with hair.
Then they grow away from the earth
then they grow away from the sun
then they grow away from the plants and animals.
They see no life
When they look
they see only objects.
The world is a dead thing for them
the trees and rivers are not alive
the mountains and stones are not alive.
The deer and the bear are objects
They see no life.
They fear
They fear the world.
They destroy what they fear.
They fear themselves.
The wind will blow them across the ocean
thousands of them in giant boats
swarming like larva
out of a crushed ant hill.
They will carry objects
which can shoot death
faster than the eye can see.
They will kill the things they fear
all the animals
the people will starve.
They will poison the water
they will spin the water away
and there will be drought
the people will starve.
They will fear what they find
They will fear the people
They will kill what they fear.
Entire villages will be wiped out
They will slaughter whole tribes.
Corpses for us
Blood for us
Killing killing killing killing
And those they do not kill
will die anyway
at the destruction they see
at the loss
at the loss of the children
the loss will destroy the rest.
Stolen rivers and mountains
the stolen land will eat their hearts
and jerk their mouths from the Mother.
The people will starve.
They will bring terrible diseases
the people have never known.
Entire tribes will die out
covered with festering sores...
vomiting blood.
Corpses for our work
Set in motion now
set in motion by our witchery
set in motion
to work for us
They will take this world from ocean to ocean
they will turn on each other
they will destroy each other
Up here
in these hills
they will find the rocks,
rocks with veins of green and yellow and black.
They will lay the final pattern with these rocks
they will lay it across the world
and explode everything.
Set in motion now
set in motion
To destroy
To kill
Objects to work for us
objects to act for us
Performing the witchery
for suffering
for torment
for the stillborn
the deformed
the sterile
the dead.
Whirling
Whirling
Whirling
Whirling
set into motion now
set into motion.
A piece of the poem "[Long Time Gone]" by Leslie Marmon Silko, who is a member of the Laguna Pueblo tribe. In order to win a contest in ancient times in America about who has the greatest powers, a witch doesn't cast spells or conjure. She tells the future to witches from all the native tribes:
Okay
go ahead
laugh if you want to
but as I tell the story
it will begin to happen.
Set in motion now
set in motion by our witchery
to work for us.
Caves across the ocean
in caves of dark hills
white skin people
like the belly of a fish
covered with hair.
Then they grow away from the earth
then they grow away from the sun
then they grow away from the plants and animals.
They see no life
When they look
they see only objects.
The world is a dead thing for them
the trees and rivers are not alive
the mountains and stones are not alive.
The deer and the bear are objects
They see no life.
They fear
They fear the world.
They destroy what they fear.
They fear themselves.
The wind will blow them across the ocean
thousands of them in giant boats
swarming like larva
out of a crushed ant hill.
They will carry objects
which can shoot death
faster than the eye can see.
They will kill the things they fear
all the animals
the people will starve.
They will poison the water
they will spin the water away
and there will be drought
the people will starve.
They will fear what they find
They will fear the people
They will kill what they fear.
Entire villages will be wiped out
They will slaughter whole tribes.
Corpses for us
Blood for us
Killing killing killing killing
And those they do not kill
will die anyway
at the destruction they see
at the loss
at the loss of the children
the loss will destroy the rest.
Stolen rivers and mountains
the stolen land will eat their hearts
and jerk their mouths from the Mother.
The people will starve.
They will bring terrible diseases
the people have never known.
Entire tribes will die out
covered with festering sores...
vomiting blood.
Corpses for our work
Set in motion now
set in motion by our witchery
set in motion
to work for us
They will take this world from ocean to ocean
they will turn on each other
they will destroy each other
Up here
in these hills
they will find the rocks,
rocks with veins of green and yellow and black.
They will lay the final pattern with these rocks
they will lay it across the world
and explode everything.
Set in motion now
set in motion
To destroy
To kill
Objects to work for us
objects to act for us
Performing the witchery
for suffering
for torment
for the stillborn
the deformed
the sterile
the dead.
Whirling
Whirling
Whirling
Whirling
set into motion now
set into motion.
11/22/2011
The Super-Duper Committee Fails to Fuck Up the Economy Even Worse:
So what the fuck was that, that congressional Supercommittee bullshit? Was it just, as Jonathan Chait says, a beard for President Obama and John Boehner so that they could maintain the appearance of being action stars to their bases while still secretly buggering Keynesians behind the Capitol? (No, that doesn't make actual sense, but it's funny, so go with it.)
It was never gonna succeed in doing anything for one simple reason and one simple reason alone: Republicans just don't give a fuck. If you believe, as Republicans do, that it's better to cut Medicare and Medicaid and Social Security and education and the environment and food safety than to raise taxes a little on the rich, then you don't give a fuck. If you believe that a compromise that gives you nearly every cut you want but still raises taxes just a smidgen is a capitulation to liberal/socialist/satanic goals, then you not only don't give a fuck, you are a sociopath.
So now, as it was designed, the sequestering occurs, with cuts in social programs, the expiration of the Bush tax cuts, and, heavens to Betsy, defense budget cuts, all because Republicans can't, can't, can't, no-way, no-how raise a fuckin' penny on revenue. The best we can say is, "Well, at least the Democrats didn't make a deal that fucks things up even worse."
(And let's not toast defense budget cuts too much, unless you've got an idea for all the jobs that'll be lost there. The Rude Pundit can't make the leap to say that the family of the guy who cleans the toilets at Raytheon should go hungry just because his work prevents weapons makers from getting e.Coli.)
That's some fuckin' pledge that Grover Norquist made with nearly every Republican; it must have been signed in blood and accompanied by a photo of each signing Congress person with Norquist's cock in their mouth, just to be safe. By the way, you wanna talk about people who don't give a fuck? The Rude Pundit's faced Norquist, talked to him even, looked into his dark eyes, and that bastard is all cold evil, through and through, totally and utterly unflappable. If a Congressman crosses him, you can bet that Norquist is gonna appear at the foot of his bed with a razor and a smile.
So the supercommittee failed. We knew that was gonna happen the second the debt ceiling deal was made. And now we can say, pretty damn assuredly, that the defense cuts won't happen. Because they won't. Because someone's gotta have some courage at some point for it to happen, and (non-Bernie Sanders) courage is in short supply as we descend into the ever-looming election season, which is now every season.
So what the fuck was that, that congressional Supercommittee bullshit? Was it just, as Jonathan Chait says, a beard for President Obama and John Boehner so that they could maintain the appearance of being action stars to their bases while still secretly buggering Keynesians behind the Capitol? (No, that doesn't make actual sense, but it's funny, so go with it.)
It was never gonna succeed in doing anything for one simple reason and one simple reason alone: Republicans just don't give a fuck. If you believe, as Republicans do, that it's better to cut Medicare and Medicaid and Social Security and education and the environment and food safety than to raise taxes a little on the rich, then you don't give a fuck. If you believe that a compromise that gives you nearly every cut you want but still raises taxes just a smidgen is a capitulation to liberal/socialist/satanic goals, then you not only don't give a fuck, you are a sociopath.
So now, as it was designed, the sequestering occurs, with cuts in social programs, the expiration of the Bush tax cuts, and, heavens to Betsy, defense budget cuts, all because Republicans can't, can't, can't, no-way, no-how raise a fuckin' penny on revenue. The best we can say is, "Well, at least the Democrats didn't make a deal that fucks things up even worse."
(And let's not toast defense budget cuts too much, unless you've got an idea for all the jobs that'll be lost there. The Rude Pundit can't make the leap to say that the family of the guy who cleans the toilets at Raytheon should go hungry just because his work prevents weapons makers from getting e.Coli.)
That's some fuckin' pledge that Grover Norquist made with nearly every Republican; it must have been signed in blood and accompanied by a photo of each signing Congress person with Norquist's cock in their mouth, just to be safe. By the way, you wanna talk about people who don't give a fuck? The Rude Pundit's faced Norquist, talked to him even, looked into his dark eyes, and that bastard is all cold evil, through and through, totally and utterly unflappable. If a Congressman crosses him, you can bet that Norquist is gonna appear at the foot of his bed with a razor and a smile.
So the supercommittee failed. We knew that was gonna happen the second the debt ceiling deal was made. And now we can say, pretty damn assuredly, that the defense cuts won't happen. Because they won't. Because someone's gotta have some courage at some point for it to happen, and (non-Bernie Sanders) courage is in short supply as we descend into the ever-looming election season, which is now every season.
11/21/2011
Nonviolent Protests in America Now and Then: Same as It Ever Was:
(Picture 1 from UC Davis newspaper of events on last Friday. Picture 2 from Birmingham, Alabama in 1963.)
(Picture 1 from UC Davis newspaper of events on last Friday. Picture 2 from Birmingham, Alabama in 1963.)
11/18/2011
New Rude Video: Occupy Wall Street and the NYPD, November 15, 2011:
This is from shaky-cam video the Rude Pundit took on the day after Bloomberg's goons wrecked the Zuccotti Park encampment. He went from Canal and 6th back to Zuccotti Park, accompanied by cops every step of the way.
It's also pretty clear evidence as to why yesterday's turnout was so huge for various actions, especially the over 30,000 who took part in the Foley Square/Brooklyn Bridge march (and that's from the NYPD, not OWS - so suck on that, Tea Party number fluffers).
Remember: the Occupy protesters in your town are gonna need your help this winter. Blanket the Earth, the Rude Pundit's action for November 25, will hopefully provide some relief for the ones brave enough to try to last out the winter in places like Albany and Boise.
(And if you are organizing a donation for your local Occupation on Black Friday, let the Rude Pundit know where you're doing it so that he can announce so others may join you. Let's snowball this thing before, you know, the snowballs fly.)
This is from shaky-cam video the Rude Pundit took on the day after Bloomberg's goons wrecked the Zuccotti Park encampment. He went from Canal and 6th back to Zuccotti Park, accompanied by cops every step of the way.
It's also pretty clear evidence as to why yesterday's turnout was so huge for various actions, especially the over 30,000 who took part in the Foley Square/Brooklyn Bridge march (and that's from the NYPD, not OWS - so suck on that, Tea Party number fluffers).
Remember: the Occupy protesters in your town are gonna need your help this winter. Blanket the Earth, the Rude Pundit's action for November 25, will hopefully provide some relief for the ones brave enough to try to last out the winter in places like Albany and Boise.
(And if you are organizing a donation for your local Occupation on Black Friday, let the Rude Pundit know where you're doing it so that he can announce so others may join you. Let's snowball this thing before, you know, the snowballs fly.)
11/17/2011
This Is Not Your Fucking Movement; This Is Our Fucking Movement:
Let's be honest here: the march this morning to shut down Wall Street was useless if its goal was to, well, shut down Wall Street. The New York Stock Exchange is, more or less, a show. Multi-million dollar financial transactions are not done by crazy, sweaty guys on a loud, chaotic floor. They're done digitally. So whether or not the secretaries and junior fuckbag executives and janitors got into work didn't stop a single transfer of funds from one rich asshole to another. It pissed off some people and got the cops more overtime.
But, as ever, as ever, since it's started, everyone, from The Daily Show to Diane Rehm, right, left, and middle, has insisted that Occupy Wall Street conform to some readily defined paradigm of what a protest movement needs to be. Essentially, they are echoing something that Karl Rove drooled out the other day when he asked protesters at a speech he giving at Johns Hopkins University, "Who gave you the right to occupy America?" The real question is "Who took that right away?"
We are just two months into this. Two fucking months after sucking up the shit given to us from the right for years. Two fucking months after being part of the movement that propelled Obama into the presidency, only to see that movement dissolved and dissipated. Two fucking months after watching two years of Tea Party bullshit being flaunted in our faces as if it represented anything but the height of corporate and conservative cynicism and manipulation.
We are two months into this and everyone in the media is clamoring for closure. It took years for the civil rights movement to get laws changed. It took years for the anti-Vietnam War movement to get through the thick skulls of the majority of Americans. This is just starting. Welcome to the real occupation.
Right now, the whole Occupy Wall Street narrative arc is following a well-worn script: defiance of authority followed by a crackdown by the agents of the authority. The corrupt, illegal power of the police and the governments of New York, Oakland, and elsewhere has been on display, with the raid on Zuccotti Park and on encampments around the country, as well as attacks on media members from the right, left, and middle.
The march this morning wasn't going to do anything, despite the hopeful rumors that the stock market opening bell had been delayed (it wasn't). No, the point was, like the rallies for Obama before them, that there is power in numbers. And that power needs to be exhibited and enacted.
When the Supreme Court, in the Citizens United decision, said that corporations are people with First Amendment rights and affirmed that money is the equivalent of speech, it essentially was saying that some people have more speech than others. The wealthy and the corporations can never be matched in terms of the speech effect of their dollars. But they can be matched and overcome by the sheer volume of people. That's why we say we are the 99%.
Let's be honest here: the march this morning to shut down Wall Street was useless if its goal was to, well, shut down Wall Street. The New York Stock Exchange is, more or less, a show. Multi-million dollar financial transactions are not done by crazy, sweaty guys on a loud, chaotic floor. They're done digitally. So whether or not the secretaries and junior fuckbag executives and janitors got into work didn't stop a single transfer of funds from one rich asshole to another. It pissed off some people and got the cops more overtime.
But, as ever, as ever, since it's started, everyone, from The Daily Show to Diane Rehm, right, left, and middle, has insisted that Occupy Wall Street conform to some readily defined paradigm of what a protest movement needs to be. Essentially, they are echoing something that Karl Rove drooled out the other day when he asked protesters at a speech he giving at Johns Hopkins University, "Who gave you the right to occupy America?" The real question is "Who took that right away?"
We are just two months into this. Two fucking months after sucking up the shit given to us from the right for years. Two fucking months after being part of the movement that propelled Obama into the presidency, only to see that movement dissolved and dissipated. Two fucking months after watching two years of Tea Party bullshit being flaunted in our faces as if it represented anything but the height of corporate and conservative cynicism and manipulation.
We are two months into this and everyone in the media is clamoring for closure. It took years for the civil rights movement to get laws changed. It took years for the anti-Vietnam War movement to get through the thick skulls of the majority of Americans. This is just starting. Welcome to the real occupation.
Right now, the whole Occupy Wall Street narrative arc is following a well-worn script: defiance of authority followed by a crackdown by the agents of the authority. The corrupt, illegal power of the police and the governments of New York, Oakland, and elsewhere has been on display, with the raid on Zuccotti Park and on encampments around the country, as well as attacks on media members from the right, left, and middle.
The march this morning wasn't going to do anything, despite the hopeful rumors that the stock market opening bell had been delayed (it wasn't). No, the point was, like the rallies for Obama before them, that there is power in numbers. And that power needs to be exhibited and enacted.
When the Supreme Court, in the Citizens United decision, said that corporations are people with First Amendment rights and affirmed that money is the equivalent of speech, it essentially was saying that some people have more speech than others. The wealthy and the corporations can never be matched in terms of the speech effect of their dollars. But they can be matched and overcome by the sheer volume of people. That's why we say we are the 99%.
11/16/2011
Long Live the Occupation (With or Without Occupying) Updated and Updated Again:
The bastards may have taken down Oakland, Portland, New York City, and other occupations in what is increasingly clear was a coordinated attack on the movement by city halls and, perhaps, really, the Department of Homeland Security. But fuck them. There's still many, many OWS protests around the nation, sea to shining motherfuckin' sea.
The following Occupy encampments, big and small, are still going strong, according to a Facebook request put out by the Rude Pundit (this list is inevitably going to be incomplete - feel free to write so it can be updated, which it will be throughout the day):
Asheville
Atlanta
Austin
Baltimore
Birmingham, Alabama
Boise (really? Cool...)
Boston
Buffalo
Charlotte
Columbia, South Carolina
Columbus, Ohio
Denver
Des Moines
Eugene
Flint
Gainesville
Iowa City
Las Vegas
Lexington, Kentucky
Little Rock
Los Angeles
Louisville
Madison
Memphis
Nashville
New Orleans
Pensacola
Philadelphia
Phoenix
Pittsburgh
Portland, Maine
Providence
Reno
Rochester, New York
Santa Cruz
Seattle
Tacoma
Tampa
Tucson
Washington, DC
They're gonna need supplies. And next Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, the Rude Pundit wants a whole lot of people to show up with the cold-weather gear that the people camped out are going to need to make it through the winter. If the NYC occupiers are not back in camp by then, the Rude Pundit will come out to Philadelphia. Who is organizing there?
Blanket the occupiers. Blanket the Earth.
But let's not get too "We Are the World" here. The siege is ongoing:
San Francisco has been raided and is being dismantled. San Diego is under attack. Dallas could be gone as early as today. Albany has been under constant threat by the police. Minnesota has been threatened by city officials in Minneapolis. Houston is in a battle over what is or is not a tent. Tulsa keeps getting fucked with. Occupy Missoula has been fucked with, too. Detroit is moving indoors rather than face the brutal Michigan winter. Charlottesville isn't sure if it'll be there past the 26th. Riverside, California, has been raided and still stands. And cops keep hassling the good people of Honolulu.
Yet Chicago keeps going without a camp. They are gonna need gear, too.
Let's show the nation that this movement can't be squashed by billionaire mayors or colluding authorities. They may have the cash, but we have the numbers.
The bastards may have taken down Oakland, Portland, New York City, and other occupations in what is increasingly clear was a coordinated attack on the movement by city halls and, perhaps, really, the Department of Homeland Security. But fuck them. There's still many, many OWS protests around the nation, sea to shining motherfuckin' sea.
The following Occupy encampments, big and small, are still going strong, according to a Facebook request put out by the Rude Pundit (this list is inevitably going to be incomplete - feel free to write so it can be updated, which it will be throughout the day):
Asheville
Atlanta
Austin
Baltimore
Birmingham, Alabama
Boise (really? Cool...)
Boston
Buffalo
Charlotte
Columbia, South Carolina
Columbus, Ohio
Denver
Des Moines
Eugene
Flint
Gainesville
Iowa City
Las Vegas
Lexington, Kentucky
Little Rock
Los Angeles
Louisville
Madison
Memphis
Nashville
New Orleans
Pensacola
Philadelphia
Phoenix
Pittsburgh
Portland, Maine
Providence
Reno
Rochester, New York
Santa Cruz
Seattle
Tacoma
Tampa
Tucson
Washington, DC
They're gonna need supplies. And next Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, the Rude Pundit wants a whole lot of people to show up with the cold-weather gear that the people camped out are going to need to make it through the winter. If the NYC occupiers are not back in camp by then, the Rude Pundit will come out to Philadelphia. Who is organizing there?
Blanket the occupiers. Blanket the Earth.
But let's not get too "We Are the World" here. The siege is ongoing:
San Francisco has been raided and is being dismantled. San Diego is under attack. Dallas could be gone as early as today. Albany has been under constant threat by the police. Minnesota has been threatened by city officials in Minneapolis. Houston is in a battle over what is or is not a tent. Tulsa keeps getting fucked with. Occupy Missoula has been fucked with, too. Detroit is moving indoors rather than face the brutal Michigan winter. Charlottesville isn't sure if it'll be there past the 26th. Riverside, California, has been raided and still stands. And cops keep hassling the good people of Honolulu.
Yet Chicago keeps going without a camp. They are gonna need gear, too.
Let's show the nation that this movement can't be squashed by billionaire mayors or colluding authorities. They may have the cash, but we have the numbers.
11/15/2011
Observations on the Post-Raid Occupation in New York (Updated):
The creepiest thing that the Rude Pundit saw today over at Occupy Wall Street at Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan was a pair of large, short-haired white men in suits and black trenchcoats. G-Tweedledee was video recording the scene while G-Tweedledum was watching the recording on one of those extra strong ToughBook laptops. The Rude Pundit turned his camera on them, as they were standing right next to him near the edge of 1 Liberty Plaza. When they noticed, they moved further up the plaza. When security cleared the area, they were allowed to stay. And when the Rude Pundit filmed them again, they looked directly at and filmed him.
Secret Service? FBI? CIA? Who knows? But those fuckers were intimidating and frightening, which was, of course, part of the idea.
The Rude Pundit marched with the OWS remnants from their recon position at Duarte Park, about 10 blocks uptown. Up at Duarte, we were bordered by two lines of cops, not allowing us to walk off into the streets. The cops followed us along the march down to Zuccotti Park. We were joined by a wandering trumpeter across Varick Street. He played "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" and merged with the march. Finally, arriving at Zuccotti Park, we were blocked from entering the space by the NYPD, despite a judge's early morning order reversing the eviction that Mayor Michael Bloomberg had ordered.
It is not overstating the matter to say that Bloomberg and the NYPD were willfully in contempt of court. A judge said they were supposed to act one way. They acted in the opposite way. That's pretty clearly a violation of a court order. So instead the protesters surrounded the park in a barricaded path while others were arrested at Duarte.
Arrests happened at Zuccotti, mostly people trying to jump the barricades to get into the center of the park. The Rude Pundit saw (and recorded) a couple of them, including a man who tried to plant a large American flag in the park. He was slammed to the ground by the cops, who took his flag and rolled it up. They put the Stars and Stripes into a paddy wagon, while they put the man in the back. They locked the doors. They drove them both away.
The Rude Pundit heard some near him jeering the arrested, laughing about them being raped at Riker's Island. He turned on one older fuck, a douchebag past his prime. He asked the douchebag what he'd do. "Arrest 'em all. They're a bunch of criminal scum," he sneered. As the Rude Pundit asked the cock-faced bastard another question, the dude said, "That's all. I'm done. Move along now."
"Move along now?" The Rude Pundit said. "How about 'Okay, thanks'?" He said to move along again, and the Rude Pundit laughed in his corrupt fucking face.
Right now, we await a decision no whether or not the original order stands. But even if it does, will Bloomberg call the police off? And if he won't, who will enforce the will of the courts?
Remember: they were going to shut this down. They were always going to toss the tents and toss people into jail. They had to. That's who they are. They were always going to follow the same script they always do. They, the big “They,” the “They” that has the police in their pockets, the “They” that is always opposed to the “we,” as in “We, the People."
It had to end, the occupation, in order for it to flourish. Except it will not have ended in failure, no matter what the judge or the mayor say or do.
Update: The occupation is dead. Long live the occupation.
The creepiest thing that the Rude Pundit saw today over at Occupy Wall Street at Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan was a pair of large, short-haired white men in suits and black trenchcoats. G-Tweedledee was video recording the scene while G-Tweedledum was watching the recording on one of those extra strong ToughBook laptops. The Rude Pundit turned his camera on them, as they were standing right next to him near the edge of 1 Liberty Plaza. When they noticed, they moved further up the plaza. When security cleared the area, they were allowed to stay. And when the Rude Pundit filmed them again, they looked directly at and filmed him.
Secret Service? FBI? CIA? Who knows? But those fuckers were intimidating and frightening, which was, of course, part of the idea.
The Rude Pundit marched with the OWS remnants from their recon position at Duarte Park, about 10 blocks uptown. Up at Duarte, we were bordered by two lines of cops, not allowing us to walk off into the streets. The cops followed us along the march down to Zuccotti Park. We were joined by a wandering trumpeter across Varick Street. He played "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" and merged with the march. Finally, arriving at Zuccotti Park, we were blocked from entering the space by the NYPD, despite a judge's early morning order reversing the eviction that Mayor Michael Bloomberg had ordered.
It is not overstating the matter to say that Bloomberg and the NYPD were willfully in contempt of court. A judge said they were supposed to act one way. They acted in the opposite way. That's pretty clearly a violation of a court order. So instead the protesters surrounded the park in a barricaded path while others were arrested at Duarte.
Arrests happened at Zuccotti, mostly people trying to jump the barricades to get into the center of the park. The Rude Pundit saw (and recorded) a couple of them, including a man who tried to plant a large American flag in the park. He was slammed to the ground by the cops, who took his flag and rolled it up. They put the Stars and Stripes into a paddy wagon, while they put the man in the back. They locked the doors. They drove them both away.
The Rude Pundit heard some near him jeering the arrested, laughing about them being raped at Riker's Island. He turned on one older fuck, a douchebag past his prime. He asked the douchebag what he'd do. "Arrest 'em all. They're a bunch of criminal scum," he sneered. As the Rude Pundit asked the cock-faced bastard another question, the dude said, "That's all. I'm done. Move along now."
"Move along now?" The Rude Pundit said. "How about 'Okay, thanks'?" He said to move along again, and the Rude Pundit laughed in his corrupt fucking face.
Right now, we await a decision no whether or not the original order stands. But even if it does, will Bloomberg call the police off? And if he won't, who will enforce the will of the courts?
Remember: they were going to shut this down. They were always going to toss the tents and toss people into jail. They had to. That's who they are. They were always going to follow the same script they always do. They, the big “They,” the “They” that has the police in their pockets, the “They” that is always opposed to the “we,” as in “We, the People."
It had to end, the occupation, in order for it to flourish. Except it will not have ended in failure, no matter what the judge or the mayor say or do.
Update: The occupation is dead. Long live the occupation.
11/14/2011
Now Newt?:
Really, GOP? Newt Gingrich now? Really? Deciding to move on to Newt Gingrich because Herman Cain was too tainted by a sex scandal is like moving on to crack once meth has lost its allure. Just shut the fuck up and nominate Mitt Romney as your mad godhead already.
Newt Gingrich is as appalling a globule of corrupt phlegm that the rheumatic lungs of the body politic has ever hacked up. Forget for a moment his government shutdown, his push for investigating every fake scandal of the Bill Clinton administration, his being driven out of DC like a rabid raccoon because of ethics violations, his hypocritical flogging of family values while he was ending every marriage by fucking another woman (and that's leaving out the hospital visit to his cancer-ridden first wife to discuss the terms of a break-up, not to mention his line of credit at Tiffany's). Forget all that. If you want to know what a vindictive, awful, petty motherfucker this motherfucker is, check this out:
When things were gearing up for the release of the Starr Report on Clinton, Gingrich wanted to impeach Al Gore, too. Not for anything the then-Vice President did, but for what he might do if he were president: "Gingrich believes that the report will be so tough that Clinton will be impeached. The thinking then goes that Gore, as his successor, will pardon Clinton. This, of course, leaves Gore in place as the incumbent president, which is not something the Republicans wish to have happen. So once Gore has pardoned Clinton, Gingrich's thinking goes, the Congress will impeach Gore for having pardoned Clinton. As one of these close associates of Gingrich said to me, 'You can't have a Clinton strategy without a Gore strategy.'"
You understand? He doesn't care. He doesn't fucking care. Drag the country through the upheaval of impeachment once? Fuck, why not do it again. And again. He only seeks to service a disgraced ideology, and he is part of the reason it's disgraced. Gingrich is just giddy, bloated rich windbag whose academic credentials give him the imprimatur of expertise where none exists. He is 100 pounds of shit in a 50 pound bag.
His idiotic Contract with America, which heaved itself out the same post-Reagan cesspool as Grover Norquist's destructive pledge, leads directly to the current partisan madness that has wreaked havoc on the nation. He nearly ripped the nation apart. Nominating Newt Gingrich for president is like giving a drunk the keys to a new car right after he wrapped the last one around a telephone pole.
And, as ever, “Fuck you, Newt Gingrich.”
Really, GOP? Newt Gingrich now? Really? Deciding to move on to Newt Gingrich because Herman Cain was too tainted by a sex scandal is like moving on to crack once meth has lost its allure. Just shut the fuck up and nominate Mitt Romney as your mad godhead already.
Newt Gingrich is as appalling a globule of corrupt phlegm that the rheumatic lungs of the body politic has ever hacked up. Forget for a moment his government shutdown, his push for investigating every fake scandal of the Bill Clinton administration, his being driven out of DC like a rabid raccoon because of ethics violations, his hypocritical flogging of family values while he was ending every marriage by fucking another woman (and that's leaving out the hospital visit to his cancer-ridden first wife to discuss the terms of a break-up, not to mention his line of credit at Tiffany's). Forget all that. If you want to know what a vindictive, awful, petty motherfucker this motherfucker is, check this out:
When things were gearing up for the release of the Starr Report on Clinton, Gingrich wanted to impeach Al Gore, too. Not for anything the then-Vice President did, but for what he might do if he were president: "Gingrich believes that the report will be so tough that Clinton will be impeached. The thinking then goes that Gore, as his successor, will pardon Clinton. This, of course, leaves Gore in place as the incumbent president, which is not something the Republicans wish to have happen. So once Gore has pardoned Clinton, Gingrich's thinking goes, the Congress will impeach Gore for having pardoned Clinton. As one of these close associates of Gingrich said to me, 'You can't have a Clinton strategy without a Gore strategy.'"
You understand? He doesn't care. He doesn't fucking care. Drag the country through the upheaval of impeachment once? Fuck, why not do it again. And again. He only seeks to service a disgraced ideology, and he is part of the reason it's disgraced. Gingrich is just giddy, bloated rich windbag whose academic credentials give him the imprimatur of expertise where none exists. He is 100 pounds of shit in a 50 pound bag.
His idiotic Contract with America, which heaved itself out the same post-Reagan cesspool as Grover Norquist's destructive pledge, leads directly to the current partisan madness that has wreaked havoc on the nation. He nearly ripped the nation apart. Nominating Newt Gingrich for president is like giving a drunk the keys to a new car right after he wrapped the last one around a telephone pole.
And, as ever, “Fuck you, Newt Gingrich.”
Organizing Blanket the Earth:
As more of you volunteer to organize for Blanket the Earth on November 25, let's make sure people know who you are. The Rude Pundit's not gonna post the info here because, well, it's cold out here in the real world.
Instead, post your info on the Blanket the Earth Facebook page. Atlanta, you're taken care of. You can also email the Rude Pundit to tell him it's cool for him to post it there.
He'll be talking about it this morning on The Stephanie Miller Show at 9:30 a.m. ET.
And let's hope that all the OWS encampments aren't wrecked by police before Black Friday.
(Genuine catching-up-with-the-news rudeness in a bit.)
As more of you volunteer to organize for Blanket the Earth on November 25, let's make sure people know who you are. The Rude Pundit's not gonna post the info here because, well, it's cold out here in the real world.
Instead, post your info on the Blanket the Earth Facebook page. Atlanta, you're taken care of. You can also email the Rude Pundit to tell him it's cool for him to post it there.
He'll be talking about it this morning on The Stephanie Miller Show at 9:30 a.m. ET.
And let's hope that all the OWS encampments aren't wrecked by police before Black Friday.
(Genuine catching-up-with-the-news rudeness in a bit.)
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