I just saw this item come across the wires: Boehner’s office cuts off C-SPAN cameras as GOP takes verbal beating.

Basically what happened is this: The Democrats were trying to get a vote on an extension on the payroll tax cut extension, which would extend the lower rates for another two months. The Republicans wanted no part of it, and walked out. And, when the Dem’s started to call them on it, Boehner had the C-SPAN feed cut.

This is wrong at so many levels I don’t know where to start.

OK, how about starting here: does Boehner think the voters want higher taxes? Does he think at all? No. Of course not. He’s engaged in his own little dipshit battle for the Good of the Party. So, basically, he’s giving everyone who voted for him the finger. Because no one – rich or poor – wants higher taxes. And a lot of people can’t handle any…

“Announcement: The oppression will continue until morale improves.”

If you recall those heady, sweat-soaked months after 9/11, when America couldn’t decide if it was a rabid pit-bull with a belly full of rage, or an overly abused Harbor Seal in need of round-the-clock maximum-security protection, the mantra was: “If you don’t travel, the terrorists win.”

“If you don’t watch football, the terrorists win.”

“If you don’t go out and spend money at the malls for Christmas, the terrorists win.”

And so, we did all those things.

But a funny thing has happened. Despite our unchecked gluttony and relentless observation of the color-coded Terror Threat Level: the terrorists won. America still stands and we can still kick most other country’s asses with “shock and awe” and twenty-four hour embedded media coverage. But the things that Americans value have been napalmed: freedom, safety, and personal wealth. While the mega-rich are not much worse off than they were in 2001, most everyone else…

So I was trying to get some work done on Wednesday afternoon and, foolishly, had my Twitter app running. What do I see? The SFPD is massing to take on OccupySF over the same battle ground as the night before: Justin Herman Plaza. Wonderful. (Note, everything I’m recounting here I watched unfold live via streaming media. I wasn’t at the event. But I didn’t need to be to be a witness.)

OSF was going to the park for their nightly “GA” (General Assembly) … you know, something guaranteed by that pesky First Amendment … and SFPD appeared to want none of it. So they surrounded the core of the OSF group with their “kettle” – the first step before arrests begin en masse.

But then they grabbed a guy from outside the cordoned area – someone not in the cross-hairs of an arrest – someone sitting down, no less – no threat. The PD put him in one of their…

This design contrasts the stark, attention-getting image at the top, with the historical quotes below. This is intended to be kind of a wake-up call to what the images people are seeing on the news about Occupy evictions actually means in terms of their own Constitutional rights. The quotes range from 20th century to pre-Revolutionary War; two-hundred-and-forty years later, we’re dealing with the same issues.

Printable Version: CloudApp

“In a nation ruled by swine, all pigs are upward-mobile-and the rest of us are fucked until we can put our acts together: not necessarily to win, but mainly to keep from losing completely.”
    ~~ Hunter S. Thompson, “The Great Shark Hunt” (1979) 

On Tuesday the 29th of November the Los Angeles Police Department swept in and overran the Occupy LA camp in front of city hall. There were between 1400 and 1800 officers involved, depending on the sources you go by. Close to three-hundred people were arrested. A number of the people who were arrested were held in Van Nuys, which is about ten minutes from where I live, so I drove up to meet some of the Occupy people who were waiting for their comrades to be released. I hadn’t been to a “General Assembly” or a camp – up until last night all I knew of the Occupy people was what I saw through…