Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
Editorials & Other Articles
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Hissyspit
Hissyspit's Journal
Hissyspit's Journal
December 15, 2011
Salon / By John Knefel
"We Want Your Retina?" My 37 Hours in Police Custody for Protesting Were an Eye Opener
Why it's important for occupiers to see the inside of the prison-industrial complex.
December 14, 2011 |
“You got press credentials?”
I barely had time to say no to the mustachioed White Shirt before he grabbed my forearm and threw me to the ground. As he brought me down I transferred my smartphone – which I had been using to document the NYPD’s aggressive arrests following the impromptu celebration in the Winter Garden on Dec. 12 – to my left hand and then my pocket. The website Boing Boing posted a very dramatic photograph of me holding my glasses while police pile on top of me. I’ve been covering Occupy Wall Street as an independent journalist for its entirety as a radio show host, for Salon, and on the ground.
- snip -
We want your retina
When we were finally brought to the final holding area for our arraignment we were informed that if we refused to submit to a retina scan we would likely be held overnight. The retina scan is a voluntary procedure that all 10 of us had already denied earlier that day. According to our lawyers from the National Lawyers Guild – who are heroes – the lieutenant on duty and the judge said that if we continued to refuse the scans we wouldn’t get out that night. With only a few exceptions due to personal commitments, we all stood in solidarity and refused to submit to the procedure. This was around 11 p.m. on Tuesday, roughly 36 hours after our arrest. Several of the women arrested and a majority of the men were going to spend another night in prison to protest the ever expanding security state. In many ways, this final hurdle was the most egregious encroachment on our liberties. The retinal scan is a voluntary procedure, but if you don’t submit to it, you will be punished.
MORE AT LINK
"We Want Your Retina?" My 37 Hours In Police Custody For Protesting Were An Eye Opener
http://www.alternet.org/occupywallst/153440/%22we_want_your_retina%22_my_37_hours_in_police_custody_for_protesting_were_an_eye_opener/?page=entireSalon / By John Knefel
"We Want Your Retina?" My 37 Hours in Police Custody for Protesting Were an Eye Opener
Why it's important for occupiers to see the inside of the prison-industrial complex.
December 14, 2011 |
“You got press credentials?”
I barely had time to say no to the mustachioed White Shirt before he grabbed my forearm and threw me to the ground. As he brought me down I transferred my smartphone – which I had been using to document the NYPD’s aggressive arrests following the impromptu celebration in the Winter Garden on Dec. 12 – to my left hand and then my pocket. The website Boing Boing posted a very dramatic photograph of me holding my glasses while police pile on top of me. I’ve been covering Occupy Wall Street as an independent journalist for its entirety as a radio show host, for Salon, and on the ground.
- snip -
We want your retina
When we were finally brought to the final holding area for our arraignment we were informed that if we refused to submit to a retina scan we would likely be held overnight. The retina scan is a voluntary procedure that all 10 of us had already denied earlier that day. According to our lawyers from the National Lawyers Guild – who are heroes – the lieutenant on duty and the judge said that if we continued to refuse the scans we wouldn’t get out that night. With only a few exceptions due to personal commitments, we all stood in solidarity and refused to submit to the procedure. This was around 11 p.m. on Tuesday, roughly 36 hours after our arrest. Several of the women arrested and a majority of the men were going to spend another night in prison to protest the ever expanding security state. In many ways, this final hurdle was the most egregious encroachment on our liberties. The retinal scan is a voluntary procedure, but if you don’t submit to it, you will be punished.
MORE AT LINK
December 14, 2011
By Sam Pizzigati
Presenting the Ten Greediest Americans of 2011
You don't have to make a million to rate as an all-star greedster. You do have to be ruthless, self-absorbed and grossly insensitive.
December 13, 2011 |
The greediest among us in 2011 probably haven’t been any greedier, as a gang, than any greedy of the recent past. They just seem that way.
Why so? We have a whole new frame of reference. This fall’s sudden — and exhilarating — rise of the Occupy movement has helped us remember what we, as a society, had sadly forgotten: that decent, smart societies never let the few grab away rewards that ought to be shared among the many.
- snip -
9. Michael Duke: Shifting the Goalposts
How do CEOs end up making so much? Ask Michael Duke, the chief exec at retail colossus Wal-Mart. Duke takes home his millions — $18.7 million in his company’s latest fiscal year alone — the old-fashioned way. He squeezes workers.
2. Don Blankenship: Prepping for a Comeback
This past May, West Virginia state investigators found Massey Energy directly to blame for the 2010 blast that left 29 miners dead at the company’s Upper Big Branch coal mine. Massey CEO Don Blankenship’s management team, probers charged, had nurtured a “culture bent on production at the expense of safety.”
Alternet: Presenting The Ten Greediest Americans Of 2011
http://www.alternet.org/story/153418/presenting_the_ten_greediest_americans_of_2011?page=entireBy Sam Pizzigati
Presenting the Ten Greediest Americans of 2011
You don't have to make a million to rate as an all-star greedster. You do have to be ruthless, self-absorbed and grossly insensitive.
December 13, 2011 |
The greediest among us in 2011 probably haven’t been any greedier, as a gang, than any greedy of the recent past. They just seem that way.
Why so? We have a whole new frame of reference. This fall’s sudden — and exhilarating — rise of the Occupy movement has helped us remember what we, as a society, had sadly forgotten: that decent, smart societies never let the few grab away rewards that ought to be shared among the many.
- snip -
9. Michael Duke: Shifting the Goalposts
How do CEOs end up making so much? Ask Michael Duke, the chief exec at retail colossus Wal-Mart. Duke takes home his millions — $18.7 million in his company’s latest fiscal year alone — the old-fashioned way. He squeezes workers.
2. Don Blankenship: Prepping for a Comeback
This past May, West Virginia state investigators found Massey Energy directly to blame for the 2010 blast that left 29 miners dead at the company’s Upper Big Branch coal mine. Massey CEO Don Blankenship’s management team, probers charged, had nurtured a “culture bent on production at the expense of safety.”
December 14, 2011
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/12/13/1045085/-This-Is-Awesome
TUE DEC 13, 2011 AT 08:47 PM EST
This Is Awesome: Anti-gay Troy, MI, mayor schooled at City Council meeting by gay family
byChrisloveFollow
If you haven't heard about all the hub-bub in Troy, Michigan, check out Scott Wooledge's diary ( http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/12/02/1041908/-Troy,-MI-Mayor-Janice-Daniels-Is-A-Low-Class-Idiot-Should-Grow-Up?via=search ) on the subject. To summarize, a screenshot recently surfaced showing Troy Mayor Janice Daniels making (before she became mayor, not that it matters) some pretty nasty anti-gay remarks on Facebook after the New York marriage equality victory.
Daniels's response to the discovery was:
I may have said something like that. I probably shouldn’t have used that kind of language, but I do believe marriage should be between one man and one woman.
Needless to say, there has been quite the backlash in Troy. Daniels was absolutely ripped apart in the City Council meeting that took place after the Facebook remarks surfaced. There were calls for her to resign. She was featured by Keith Olbermann as the "Worst Person in the World." There have even been calls to boycott the city of Troy. Despite all of this, and despite the very real embarrassment she has caused the city, she has not stepped down.
Well, at last week's City Council meeting, a family paid a visit to Daniels during the public comments portion of the meeting. A gay family. A lesbian couple and their two daughters. The result? Daniels was schooled in the most awesome possible way.
MORE AT LINKS[p]
This Is Awesome: Anti-gay Troy, MI, Mayor Schooled at City Council Meeting by Gay Family
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/12/13/1045085/-This-Is-Awesome
TUE DEC 13, 2011 AT 08:47 PM EST
This Is Awesome: Anti-gay Troy, MI, mayor schooled at City Council meeting by gay family
byChrisloveFollow
If you haven't heard about all the hub-bub in Troy, Michigan, check out Scott Wooledge's diary ( http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/12/02/1041908/-Troy,-MI-Mayor-Janice-Daniels-Is-A-Low-Class-Idiot-Should-Grow-Up?via=search ) on the subject. To summarize, a screenshot recently surfaced showing Troy Mayor Janice Daniels making (before she became mayor, not that it matters) some pretty nasty anti-gay remarks on Facebook after the New York marriage equality victory.
Daniels's response to the discovery was:
I may have said something like that. I probably shouldn’t have used that kind of language, but I do believe marriage should be between one man and one woman.
Needless to say, there has been quite the backlash in Troy. Daniels was absolutely ripped apart in the City Council meeting that took place after the Facebook remarks surfaced. There were calls for her to resign. She was featured by Keith Olbermann as the "Worst Person in the World." There have even been calls to boycott the city of Troy. Despite all of this, and despite the very real embarrassment she has caused the city, she has not stepped down.
Well, at last week's City Council meeting, a family paid a visit to Daniels during the public comments portion of the meeting. A gay family. A lesbian couple and their two daughters. The result? Daniels was schooled in the most awesome possible way.
MORE AT LINKS[p]
December 12, 2011
Jason Linkins
Glenn Beck Finally Gets Around To Denouncing Bruce Springsteen
First Posted: 05/12/10 06:12 AM ET Updated: 05/25/11 04:50 PM ET
You wouldn't think this was possible, but Glenn Beck had apparently never actually sat down and listened to Bruce Springsteen's "Born In The USA," never heard the lyrics, never formed a familiarity with the song's storied history in American politics, until this week, I guess? Anyway, now that he's heard that the song isn't some glorious tongue-bath to American exceptionalism, he's denouncing it on the radio. Per Lindsay Beyerstein:
Twenty-six years after the release of Bruce Springsteen's hit song, "Born in The USA," conservative talk show host/performance artist Glenn Beck finally got around to listening to the lyrics.
Beck was shocked, shocked to discover that for all these years he'd been rocking out to a song about a bitter down-and-out Vietnam vet who has been kicked to the curb by the aforementioned USA.
Via Spencer Ackerman, here's what Beck had to say about it:
VIDEO AT LINK
BECK: You get filled with patriotic pride, and then you find out that Bruce Springsteen's 'Born In The U.S.A.' is anti-American. 'Born down in a dead man's town/ the first kick I took is when I hit the ground/ you end up like a dog that's been beat too much/ so you spend half your life just covering up...' (He reads the entire lyrics in an incredulous tone of voice; manages to mispronounce 'Khe Sanh') Hmm. Yeah! (crosstalk) ... It's time for us to wake up out of our dream state. Out of the propaganda... This is the thing that people who come from the Soviet bloc or Cuba, they're all saying, 'How do you guys not hear this? How are you not seeing this?' Well, because we don't ever expect it.
Glenn Beck Finally Gets Around To Denouncing Bruce Springsteen
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/12/glenn-beck-finally-gets-a_n_497360.htmlJason Linkins
Glenn Beck Finally Gets Around To Denouncing Bruce Springsteen
First Posted: 05/12/10 06:12 AM ET Updated: 05/25/11 04:50 PM ET
You wouldn't think this was possible, but Glenn Beck had apparently never actually sat down and listened to Bruce Springsteen's "Born In The USA," never heard the lyrics, never formed a familiarity with the song's storied history in American politics, until this week, I guess? Anyway, now that he's heard that the song isn't some glorious tongue-bath to American exceptionalism, he's denouncing it on the radio. Per Lindsay Beyerstein:
Twenty-six years after the release of Bruce Springsteen's hit song, "Born in The USA," conservative talk show host/performance artist Glenn Beck finally got around to listening to the lyrics.
Beck was shocked, shocked to discover that for all these years he'd been rocking out to a song about a bitter down-and-out Vietnam vet who has been kicked to the curb by the aforementioned USA.
Via Spencer Ackerman, here's what Beck had to say about it:
VIDEO AT LINK
BECK: You get filled with patriotic pride, and then you find out that Bruce Springsteen's 'Born In The U.S.A.' is anti-American. 'Born down in a dead man's town/ the first kick I took is when I hit the ground/ you end up like a dog that's been beat too much/ so you spend half your life just covering up...' (He reads the entire lyrics in an incredulous tone of voice; manages to mispronounce 'Khe Sanh') Hmm. Yeah! (crosstalk) ... It's time for us to wake up out of our dream state. Out of the propaganda... This is the thing that people who come from the Soviet bloc or Cuba, they're all saying, 'How do you guys not hear this? How are you not seeing this?' Well, because we don't ever expect it.
December 12, 2011
Children of OWS post paper hearts, cops rip them down
By Muriel Kane
Sunday, December 11, 2011
An anti-bullying march by parents and children directed against the New York Police Department’s arrests of peaceful protesters encountered a first-hand taste of what they were protesting against when police ripped down the paper hearts the children were attempting to post at City Hall.
As described by Margaret Flowers at October2011.org, “Parents for Occupy Wall Street, a collective community of parents & organizations in support of Occupy Wall Street met in Union Square Park on Saturday, December 10th (The International Day of Human Rights) to create 5,000 paper hearts to be delivered to Mayor Bloomberg. Each paper heart represented a peaceful protester that has been wrongfully arrested since the emergence of Occupy Wall Street movement.”
“We marched down to City Hall with our children eager to deliver our hearts and our message,” the account continues. “As we were not allowed onto the steps of City Hall due to renovations underway, we decided to tape the hearts onto the gates in front. We as parents watched in disbelief and disgust as the NYPD tore down the children’s artwork, ripped their hearts, and broke the children’s signs over their knees.”
Children of OWS Post Paper Hearts, Cops Rip Them Down
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/12/11/children-of-ows-post-paper-hearts-cops-rip-them-downChildren of OWS post paper hearts, cops rip them down
By Muriel Kane
Sunday, December 11, 2011
An anti-bullying march by parents and children directed against the New York Police Department’s arrests of peaceful protesters encountered a first-hand taste of what they were protesting against when police ripped down the paper hearts the children were attempting to post at City Hall.
As described by Margaret Flowers at October2011.org, “Parents for Occupy Wall Street, a collective community of parents & organizations in support of Occupy Wall Street met in Union Square Park on Saturday, December 10th (The International Day of Human Rights) to create 5,000 paper hearts to be delivered to Mayor Bloomberg. Each paper heart represented a peaceful protester that has been wrongfully arrested since the emergence of Occupy Wall Street movement.”
“We marched down to City Hall with our children eager to deliver our hearts and our message,” the account continues. “As we were not allowed onto the steps of City Hall due to renovations underway, we decided to tape the hearts onto the gates in front. We as parents watched in disbelief and disgust as the NYPD tore down the children’s artwork, ripped their hearts, and broke the children’s signs over their knees.”
Profile Information
Member since: Fri Nov 12, 2004, 08:39 AMNumber of posts: 45,790