By Eric W. Dolan for RAW Story

August 2, 2011- In an interview with Countdown host Keith Olbermann on Tuesday, former vice president and Current TV founder Al Gore said the United States needed an “American spring” like the Arab spring in the Middle East and Northern Africa.

“We need to have an American spring,” he said. “Non-violent change, where people from the grassroots get involved again. Not in the tea party style. There are people who are genuinely upset in the tea party, I understand that, but that movement was funded with seed money from right-wing billionaires, the Koch brothers, and promoted on Fox News and turned into a stalking horse for this right-wing agenda that a lot of people have been trying to push on this country for a long time.”

“This country is in trouble,” Gore added. “Our democracy has been withering on the vine. This has been going on for some time.”

Monday on Countdown, Gore called the U.S. system of government “broken” and “in real trouble.”

Watch video, courtesy of Current TV, below:

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[flv]https://www.greanvillepost.com/videos/Al GoreWhy America Needs a Non-Violent Tahrir Square, Pt 1.flv[/flv] 

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Dateline: October 21, 2011

By Anomaly100 

United States Marine Corps. Sergeant Shamar Thomas in a spectacular moment defended the protesters of Occupy Wall Street while staring into the faces of thirty NYPD officers, and now countless other Marines have organized in an amazing show of solidarity.

Sgt. Thomas’ gallant actions in standing up for American citizens being brutalized by the police were shown in a video which has gone viral with almost 2 million views. Marines have joined forces with #OccupyMarines in solidarity with the movement not just in New York, but nationwide:

“OccupyMARINES Are Currently Assessing The Current Situation To Ascertain What Is Currently Needed To Support OWS America. We Are Humbled At The Substantial Support OWS America Has Provided And Ask That Everyone Continue As You All Do While We Implement Organization Nationwide. As We All Know, ‘Occupy’ Groups Are Being Established Even Now And Would Like To See This Trend Continue.”

Their website OccupyMarines.org presents a post centering on continuing the Occupy movement throughout the upcoming winter. In their call for “Non-Active ‘Occupy’ Military Supporters Only” they’re organizing a dress code in order to identify their branch affiliation.

Instead of ostracizing the police, the Marines are attempting to reach out to them much like Sgt. Thomas did.

#OrganizeMarines states, “Security forces/police should be seen as potential recruits to our cause and message, not as adversaries. Ultimately, they are accountable to the people.”

During Sgt. Thomas’ bold speech, the police presence became suddenly solemn hanging on his every word. Perhaps the presence of Marines will awaken the Police force which has been overwhelming the protests.

Presenting their group and the Occupiers as a peaceful movement, no matter what, including verbal attacks and/or propaganda brought forth from those opposing the protest they state, “Defensive strategies never win. Do not respond to verbal attacks or hostile propaganda from Nay-Sayers by using the language of the opponent. Reframe.”

Meet Iraq veteran Alex E. Limkin:

“I swore to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against enemies both foreign, and domestic.”

Veteran Alex Limkin said:

“There is nothing more central to a free and democratic people than the right to dissent, the right to disagree, the right to stand up in the town square and be heard… I feel quite sure that in standing in solidarity with the peaceful Occupy Wall Street movement, I am doing no less than upholding my oath as an American soldier.”

Sgt. Shamar Thomas was the catalyst in this movie-like scenario with our inactive military standing with the protesters side by side.

These Marines’ actions are the definition of patriotism – not donning flagpins or waving Old Betsy — actions speak Red, White and Blue louder than feigning patriotism by displays which are born from a strong partisan stance.

Naysayers stand back, the Marines are coming.

#OccupyMarines, we are humbled.

Blogger Extraordinaire Anomaly100 is the owner of and progressive mastermind behind FreakOut Nation.

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By Sarah Jaffe, AlterNet

Nurses’ Union Condemns Rahm Emanuel for Chicago’s Arrest of Nurse Volunteers With Protesters

Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been the most public enemy of the Occupy movement, but in Chicago Rahm Emanuel (left), President Obama’s former chief of staff, is quickly becoming his competition for the title. 

A late-night crackdown on protesters camping out resulted in the arrest not only of over a hundred protesters, but of nurses volunteering at a first aid station set up at the occupation. National Nurses United, the country’s largest union of nurses, condemned the arrests. 

“Even in wartime, combatants respect the work of nurses and other first responders. Yet Mayor Emanuel and Chicago seem to care as little about that tradition as they do in protecting the constitutional rights of free speech and assembly.” said NNU Executive Director RoseAnn DeMoro in a statement. “These arrests are disgraceful and unconscionable, and will not deter our nurses from continuing this mission, setting up the station again, and continuing to support the protests.”

The nurses’ union has set up first aid stations in five other cities that are currently seeing occupations, including in New York. 

Emanuel, who was known for his Wall Street ties as a congressman and as a member of the Obama administration, has initiated several crackdowns and mass arrests of the Chicago occupiers, who seem undaunted. Perhaps his crackdowns are an attempt to get protests under control in advance of coming meetings of the G-8 and NATO in that city in coming months. 

“Instead of showing off for world leaders, and paying allegiance to protecting the economic interests of the top 1 percent, Mayor Emanuel should stop, and start representing the 99 percent, the people for whom the Occupy movement has become a clear voice,” DeMoro said.

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By Rania Khalek, AlterNet

The problem with police is that they represent society’s sole approved monopoly of violence, so the question inevitably arises everywhere: If the police are watching society who’s watching the police?

As the number of Occupy Wall Street arrests nears 1,000, instances of police brutality continue to pile up. Felix Rivera-Pitre was punched in the face in New York during a march through the city’s financial district; Ryan Hadar was dragged out of the street by his thumbs at Occupy San Francisco; and at Occupy Boston, members of Veterans for Peace were shoved to the ground and dragged away for chanting and peacefully occupying a local park. 

These efforts to intimidate the protesters are symptoms of three decades of policies that have militarized civilian law enforcement. Sgt. Shamar Thomas, a U.S. marine at the Occupy Wall Street protests, was so appalled by the behavior of the NYPD that he loudly confronted a group of 30 officers, shouting at them:

“This is not a war zone. These are unarmed people. It does not make you tough to hurt these people. If you want to go fight, go to Iraq or Afghanistan. Stop hurting these people, man, why y’all doing this to our people? Why are y’all gearing up like this is war? There are no bullets flying out here.”

Police repression in America is hardly new. Low-income neighborhoods, communities of color and political activists have always had to deal with unneccassary shows of force by some police officers. Thanks to a populist uprising threatening a status quo that benefits the top tier of American society to the detriment of the bottom 99 percent, many Americans for the first time are witnessing the U.S. police state in action. 

As Occupation Spreads, So Does the Police State

A clear pattern has emerged in the response to occupations throughout the country, from San Francisco to Denver, involving midnight raids by heavily armed paramilitary units of riot police deployed to enforce park curfews.

Protesters at Occupy San Francisco are familiar with the routine. They have endured multiple late-night police raids on their encampment in Justin Herman Plaza, the most brutal of which took place Sunday, Oct. 16. Minutes before midnight and with the approval of Mayor Ed Lee (who is currently running for reelection and claims to be supportive of the movement’s overall message), 70 police officers decked out in full riot gear marched into the encampment to enforce a 10pm curfew. They dismantled tents, tarps, the medical station and the kitchen, along with some personal belongings, all of which were loaded onto Department of Public Works trucks.

Some 200 protesters resisted peacefully, locking arms to prevent the police invasion, which was met with a frighteningly violent response. According to the San Francisco Bay Guardian, one protester received a lengthy beat-down for duct-taping his body to a pole inside the camp. The police allegedly “ripped him off the pole, threw him to the ground and struck him in the head and ribs. When he left by ambulance a few hours later, he appeared to be convulsing or seizing,” reported the Bay Guardian.

Protesters using their bodies to block the DPW trucks from leaving were dragged out of the street, some by their fingers and thumbs. Those who locked arms to form a human chain were pulled apart and thrown onto the sidewalk.  

Ryan Hadar, 19, described his experience to the Guardian: “They bent back my thumbs, trying to pry me away from the people I was locking arms with. When I asked if they were trying to break my thumbs [one officer] replied, ‘Only if I have to.’ Then they dragged me to the sidewalk by my index finger. I asked if they were trying to break my finger, and this time they replied, ‘Yes.’”

After destroying the campsite, sending one activist to the hospital and arresting at least five protesters, the police departed from the scene around 1:40am. 

Days earlier, an eerily similar situation unfolded at Occupy Denver. Just as Zuccotti Park was celebrating victory over Mayor Bloomberg’s failed eviction attempt last Friday, Denver’s occupation of Lincoln Park was being dismantled at the request of Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper. With the combined efforts of the Colorado State Patrol and Denver Police, two dozen protesters were arrested and charged with unlawful conduct on public land. 

Two weeks ago, protesters at Occupy Boston in Dewey Park faced police suppression in a late-night raid that led to 129 arrests and multiple injuries involving several members of Veterans for Peace. According to the Associated Press, nine protesters occupying Sacramento’s Cesar Chavez Park were arrested late Wednesday night for failing to leave the park after closing, bringing the total of Occupy Sacramento arrests to 67.

The authorities justify these late-night raids as necessary to enforce park curfews. Yet, even during the day, the mere presence of heavily armed riot police inevitably results in some police action that baffles the mind. For example, Debra Lynn Peardon was arrested for opening her umbrella while seated, a violation of a new city ban on the use of umbrellas as makeshift structures regardless of the weather.

Peaceful Arrests In Chicago

With the blessing of Chicago’s mayor, Rahm Emanuel, the Chicago Police Department arrested 175 protesters last weekend for refusing to leave Grant Park, the site of Occupy Chicago, citing a violation of the park’s curfew. As reported by Joe Macaré of In These Times, protesters showered praise on the Chicago Police Department for showing restraint by arresting them “One by one, and by all accounts as peacefully as possible,” in stark contrast to the violent arrests experienced at other occupations.

But the jailing of peaceful protesters is wrong, even when carried out free of beatings and pepper spray. This was epitomized by the arrest of Princeton University professor and civil rights activist Cornel West on the steps outside the Supreme Court, where it is illegal to hold a political sign. A ban on political protest outside the halls of the highest court in the country is an ironic symbol of how little regard is given to the First Amendment of the constitution.

Inevitable Outcomes of Militarized Law Enforcement

Occupy Wall Street has revealed to the country and the world an American police state apparatus that rivals most standing armies in both weaponry and magnitude.  

Nowhere is this more clear than in New York City, where a perimeter of metal barricades surrounds and even follows protesters from Zuccotti Square on their daily marches. Nick Turse recently documented the extent of the NYPD’s mini-police state for AlterNet:

I counted seven squad cars, two full-size police vans, one police minivan and one, to lapse into political incorrectness, “paddy wagon.”

Later in the morning, the total count had increased to 16 police vehicles, in addition to a number of unmarked cars, most of which proved to belong to police officers, too.

Across Broadway and up Liberty Street, the security forces maintained a reserve contingent of 11 police cars, five police vans, and one paddy wagon from precincts all over the city: the 1st, 5th, 9th, 10th, 13th, 20th, 83rd, 94th (Brooklyn!), as well as the Fleet Services Division which oversees the NYPD’s inventory of cars.

This level of overwhelming police presence, along with the disproportionate and combative force directed at peaceful, unarmed protesters, alarms Americans previously unaware of the increasingly militaristic nature of American law enforcement. 

Rania Khalek is an associate writer for AlterNet. Follow her on Twitter @RaniaKhalek.

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”Hey Alan,, let’s get a few things straight”

1— As a career politician you have been on the public dole for FIFTY YEARS.

2—I have been paying social security taxes for 48 YEARS
[since I was 15, I am now 63]

3—My social security payments, and those of millions of other Americans, were tucked away in an interest bearing account for decades until you political pukes decided to raid the account and give OUR money to a bunch of zero ambition losers in exchange for votes, thus bankrupting the system and turning social security into a Ponzi scheme that would have made Bernie Madoff proud.  (Editor’s Note: Social Security is not and has not become a Ponzi scheme, despite efforts by politicians to turn it into one. It is also solvent way into the future. In that, Meyers is regurgitating the media’s baloney about the issue.)

4—Recently, just like Lucy and Charlie Brown, you and your ilk pulled the proverbial football away from millions of American seniors nearing retirement and you have moved the goalposts for full retirement from 65 to 67. NOW, you and your shills are proposing to move the goalposts YET AGAIN.

5—I, and millions of Americans, have been paying into medicare from day ONE, and now you morons propose to change the rules of the game. Why??  Because you idiots mismanaged other parts of the economy to such an extent that you need to steal money from Medicare to pay the bills.

6—I and millions of other Americans have been paying income tax all our lives, and now you propose to raise our taxes again. Why??  Because you incompetent bastards spent our money so profligately that you just keep on spending even after you ran out of money. now, you come to the American taxpayer and say you need more money to pay YOUR debt.

To add insult to injury, you label us as ”greedy” for calling”********” on your incompetence. well captain ********, I have a few questions for you—

1– How much money have you earned from the American taxpayers during your pathetic 50 year political career?
2–At what age did you retire from your pathetic political career, and how much are you receiving in retirement from the American taxpayers?
3–How much do you pay for YOUR government provided health insurance?
4–What cuts in YOUR retirement and healthcare benefits are you proposing in your disgusting deficit reduction proposal, or, as usual, have you exempted yourself and your political cronies?

It is you, captain ********, and your political co-conspirators called Congress who are the ”greedy” ones.  It is you and your fellow nutcases who have bankrupted America and stolen the American dream from millions of loyal, patriotic taxpayers. and what for??  VOTES. that’s right, sir. you and yours have bankrupted America for the sole purpose of advancing your pathetic political careers. you know, we know it, and you know that we know it.

You can take that to the bank, you miserable son of a bitch.
—P. Meyers

* Addendum—

Alan Simpson was a dumb fuck.
Run-ins with the law

Simpson led an interesting life as a youth, which undoubtedly helped shape his later career. To quote a “friend of the Court” brief^[5] filed before the United States Supreme Court in the juvenile imprisonment cases Graham v. Florida and Sullivan v. Florida:

In Simpson’s words to this Court, “I was a monster.”

One day in Cody, Wyoming, when Simpson was in high school, he and some friends “went out to do damage.” They went to an abandoned war relocation structure and decided to “torch” it. They then actually had committed arson on federal property, a crime now punishable by up to twenty years in prison. Luckily no one was injured in the blaze.

Simpson not only played with fire, but also with guns. He played a game with his friends in which they shot at rocks close to one another, at times using bullets they stole from the local hardware store. The goal of the game was to come as close as possible to striking someone without actually doing so.

Again, Simpson was lucky: no one was killed or seriously injured.

Simpson and his friends went shooting throughout their community. They fired their 22 caliber rifles at mailboxes, blowing holes in several and killing a cow. They fired their weapons at a road grader. “We just raised hell,” Simpson says. Federal authorities charged Simpson with destroying government property and Simpson pleaded guilty. He received two years of probation and was required to make restitution from his own funds – funds that he was to obtain by holding down a job.^[6]

Simpson stated; “I was just dumb and rebellious and stupid. And a different person.” And then added;”You’re not who are when you’re 16 or 18. You’re dumb, and you don’t care and you think you are eternal.” (Wikipedia)

 

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