Electronic Pen

TONY PEYSER FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

Bashar Assad seems quite unaware; guys like

Him being out of touch are legion ---

So much so he seems not to know big temblors

Have already been hitting that region.

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BILL BERKOWITZ FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

It's not your father's (or grandfather's) Woodstock and it isn't a tea party!

To borrow a construct from New York magazine writer at large Frank Rich, "Few movements can muscle their way onto center stage in our Corporate-Democratic/Republican Party saturated political universe." Against all odds, Occupy Wall Street, and spin offs across the country, is muscling its way, albeit non-violently, and has transformed the national dialogue; in under two months.

One of the reasons, that the Occupy Movement may have a longer shelf life than the Tea Party movement is that it is becoming a cultural phenomenon. While the Tea Party with its angry, white, flag-waving older demographic, has stimulated lots of media coverage, warmed the hearts of its billionaire funders (read that: the Koch Brothers), and has managed to amass a significant amount of political power, it has had limited appeal to the majority of Americans. And, it is a movement that has been fading rapidly.

Flags, guns, tea bags, and three-cornered hats while popular with a certain segment of the public, are not cutting-edge cultural expressions. In contrast, Occupy Wall Street is more inclusive; lots of young people, Iraq and Afghanistan War veterans, small business owners, and labor and progressive activists have brought new ideas and insights about the building of a movement. And, along the way, this burgeoning movement has unleashed sparks of creativity Tea Partiers could just dream about; the posters at Occupy Wall Street, and my hometown, Occupy Oakland, are truly amazing (http://www.occupyoakland.org/2011/10/awesome-posters-for-nov-2-general-strike/.)

However, wherever there is a potentially responsive youth demographic, commercial hucksters will certainly be lurking.

Unlike the early days of some of its predecessor movements --  hippies, anti-war, women's, civil and gay rights movements, Occupy is trying to mainstream its message - "we are the 99 percent."

Invariably with mainstreaming comes commercial expression and exploitation, a mixed blessing to be sure.

How deeply is the Occupy Movement embedding itself in our mass culture? Right now, it is too early to tell. The Occupy Movement, which is about being present - non-violently -- to protest economic inequities, corporate greed, and the corporate control of our democracy, has been building through twenty-first century social networking -- Facebook, tweets, YouTube, simultaneous transmissions of video, blog posts. But the key element is being there, tents on the ground.

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There is a tendency in this country for people to insist that coverage of every issue be "fair and balanced." In fact Fox cable news has used that very description to claim an impartial-observer status that is laughably far from accurate. Most of us have given up even trying to ferret out a basis for its claim and have settled on the preponderantly partisan message it delivers instead of real news coverage.

Thus, when members of Congress, pundits on the right and candidates for office suggest that the Democratic Party and its advocates speak out of self interest and follow the dictates of their leaders one is inclined to look more closely at exactly what is going on. Should the ground be leveled to include all points of view and discussions include a give- and-take that avoids being set in ways that preclude compromise and a clear vision of 'the big picture?'

Is it possible to ignore the obvious flaws in partisan declarations and just say people have a right to express opinions that some of us don't like? As is often pointed out, however, of course everyone is entitled to an opinion but not to a deviant set of facts. Imagine, in the latest dustup over candidate Cain's inability to get his story straight, that charges of sexual harassment on his part are false. So be it. But the amazing part is that all the usual suspects on the right have come out swinging to defend him, recalling the so-called "high tech lynching" of Supreme Court Justice nominee Clarence Thomas and insisting that Cain's problems are the result of liberal tinkering because, as Ann Colter would have it, the left simply can't abide a black conservative on any level. Of course it makes no sense whatsoever for liberals to attack Cain for partisan reasons since he is such a buffoon he seals his own fate every time he makes a public statement.

And ignore for the moment the non-stop character assassinations of Anita Hill, who made the charges against Thomas. And forget that he is one of the least distinguished jurors in recent times to make it on to the court. It seemed obvious at the time that President Bush chose Thomas to replace Thurgood Marshall because he was black, and conservative at that, although he was in no may a match for the man he was replacing either in character or jurisprudence. Bush injected the racial issue in a strange sort of way and now the court must indulge this very inadequate person who passes judgment in cases about which he has predetermined the outcome even before they are presented before the court. Recently Thomas' wife called on him to apologize to Anita Hill for attaching validity to the claims she made during the confirmation process. A right-wing promoter, Mrs.Thomas should really just tend to her knitting behind the scenes instead of of introducing her far-right perspective into the business of the court.

It is difficult indeed to pretend there's a balanced way to discuss some of the political positions foisted upon the public. Is it reasonable to assume that Republicans in Congress are so convinced of their positions that they vote en-masse to negate any proposals the President and Democrats make or does the term "obstructionist" fit perfectly? Why is it Senate Leader McConnell's statement that his party's most important objective is to make Obama a one-term president strikes such a strident note? What should be done about unemployment, the deficit, rising health-care costs? Are those inconsequential matters and not the business of elected leaders? How does one square the oath of office holders swore to uphold with the pledge so many of them took in response to that angry-looking Muppet, Grover Norquist, not to raise taxes?

There's an absurdist quotient in some of the positions Republicans take that makes it hard to accept them as reasonable contributors to the national debate. Recently on Al Sharpton's show there was a visual showing the huge disparity between the very wealthy top one percent, the next much lower percent of wage earners and the bottom - - a stark depiction of what has happened to the country in terms of wealth distribution. In response Michael Steele, former Republican Party Chairman suggested that the illustrations failed to acknowledge how many in the middle had climbed into the top one percent, as if that were even a remotely relevant possibility. Please.

Reasonable people may disagree, but reason should nevertheless inform the debate, something that isn't happening with any regularity in political circles these days.

ROBERT C. KOEHLER FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

"Mr. Obama and his senior national security advisers have sought to reassure allies and answer critics, including many Republicans, that the United States will not abandon its commitments in the Persian Gulf even as it winds down the war in Iraq and looks ahead to doing the same in Afghanistan by the end of 2014."

I pluck a paragraph from the New York Times and for an instant I'm possessed by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, aquiver with puzzlement down to my deepest sensibilities. I hold you here, root and all, little paragraph. But if I could understand what you are, root and all, and all in all, I should know what empire is, and hubris . . . and maybe even, by its striking absence, democracy.

The paragraph contains the careful verbiage of exclusion, which is the only language in which the geopolitical powers that be are able to communicate.

The paragraph, one of many that could have been plucked for study and put under the microscope of outrage, is from a story just before Halloween, by Thom Shanker and Steven Lee Myers, informing us that, while the United States will be pulling troops out of Iraq at the end of the year, the regional war is anything but over: The U.S. military will be massing troops in Kuwait, sending more warships to the region and tightening its military alliance with the six nations that make up the Gulf Cooperation Council (including Saudi Arabia and Bahrain), in order to develop "a new security architecture" in the Gulf and establish its "post-Iraq footprint."

Or in the words of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton: "We will have a robust continuing presence throughout the region." And this, she explains, "is proof of our ongoing commitment to Iraq and to the future of that region," which we care about because it "holds such promise" - oh God, the compassion is killing me - "and should be freed from outside interference to continue on a pathway to democracy."

What's striking, first of all, is that the "news" is presented to us, under the guise of objective reporting, as a fait accompli: Our supreme leaders have the following plans, the cursory details of which they are nice enough to let us in on.

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STEVEN JONAS, MD, MPH FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

I have just finished a book by John Grisham entitled The Broker, published in 2005.  "The Broker" in question is not a real estate or stock-broker, but rather one of an ilk that when I was a boy many years ago was called an "influence peddler."  They now go by the more polite name of "lobbyist."  Anyway, this larger-than-life Jack Abramoff-type had been caught dabbling in some very highly sensitive security-stuff (which Abramoff himself was apparently smart enough never to have done).  The plot revolves around the determination of the CIA to have him dead, for a variety of reasons.  They have two problems.  A) he is in Federal prison and B) US government agencies cannot, under the law, just go around murdering US citizens.  And so, the CIA arranges to have him paroled by a neer-do-well outgoing President and then ships him off to Italy where, they hope, one of several nations interested in achieving the same end will find him and do the job themselves.

The story is told with Grisham's usual panache, but if he were to try to write it today he could not use the same plot.  For, as is now well-known, the US can, and does, go around murdering (or executing or assassinating [from the Arab word for political murder]) US citizens that it has in its sights.  And it does this without the benefit of physical capture, indictment, trial, or what-have-you, as prescribed under the fourth and sixth Amendments to the Constitution.  The death of Mr. Anwar el-Awlaki at the hands of a US drone aircraft in Yemen on Sept. 30, 2011 is just one piece of evidence that what might be called "Cheneyism" has triumphed over traditional constitutional democracy in our nation.

Dick Cheney, self-nominated for the position and accepted, apparently without question, for it, was easily the most powerful Vice-President the U.S. has ever had.  His hand, either openly with is name on it, or covertly without, was on virtually every major foreign and domestic policy decision made during the Presidency of George W. Bush.  And many of them, in one way or another, continue to be followed under the presidency of Barack Obama.  But the essence of cheneyism is its assault on U. S. Constitutional government.  Let us count the ways.

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MARK KARLIN, EDITOR OF BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

The dark side of the mayor of New York is blooming.

Yes, in recent BuzzFlash at Truthout commentaries, BuzzFlash has noted that Mayor Bloomberg - who is worth nearly 20 billion dollars - has lately dropped his veneer of being a "sensible centrist" and become a full-out wacko for Wall Street. The normally articulate and poised 12th-richest person in America has started to stumble as he strains to make arguments in defense of the financial industry.

But there is a motivation to Bloomberg's recent ramblings and his strategic and sometimes brutal assault on Occupy Wall Street (OWS); he is embodying crony capitalism. His "third way" veneer of nonpartisan government is giving way to cliched and inaccurate right-wing Republican message points on behalf of the richest Americans.

Take Bloomberg's latest salvo on OWS. The multibillionaire, who made his fortune on a software tool used by the financial industry to assess the risks on their bets, is blaming the federal government for the economic meltdown. This week, he lectured the OWS movement on its alleged "naivete."

According to the web site Capital, Bloomberg told business leaders at a breakfast on November 1:

It was not the banks that created the mortgage crisis. It was, plain and simple, Congress who forced everybody to go and give mortgages to people who were on the cusp....

They were the ones that pushed the banks to loan to everybody. And now we want to go vilify the banks because it's one target, it's easy to blame them and congress certainly isn't going to blame themselves.

Capital also quoted Bloomberg as saying that it was "cathartic" and "entertaining" to blame people (i.e., the "victims" on "Wall Street").

But numerous experts have refuted Bloomberg's "the 1% are guiltless" Republican claim, including Paul Krugman, who notes, that "the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 was irrelevant to the subprime boom, which was overwhelmingly driven by loan originators not subject to the Act."

Media Matters has totally debunked Bloomberg's revisionist exculpation of Wall Street:

Private firms dominated the subprime market boom of 2004-06, and were not even subject to the 1977 Community Reinvestment Act some Republicans vilify. Thanks to decades of financial deregulation, capped by President Bush's decision to appoint Wall Street regulators who believed their job was to help banks rather than curb banking abuses, financial giants were able to turn the mortgage market into a high-stakes casino. As investigative reporters and Congress' Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission have all shown, it was deregulation mixed with irresponsible and potentially illegal practices by private firms on Wall Street that caused both the bubble and the collapse.

In a rambling radio interview a couple of weeks back, Bloomberg claimed that "the protesters are protesting against people who make $40-50,000 a year and are struggling to make ends meet. That's the bottom line."

No, the bottom line is that when push comes to shove, Bloomberg is all about protecting his fellow billionaires on the Forbes list of wealthiest Americans.

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When Timothy Geithner headed the New York Federal Reserve Bank (NYFRB) in 2008, it paid credit-default swaps clients of AIG the full dollar value on their contracts, even though the NYFRB could have almost certainly paid much less.

In essence, according to a November 1 article in The New York Times, that means the likes of Goldman Sachs got a full taxpayer reimbursement for their risky investments gone sour, even though if AIG had been allowed to collapse, the 16 Wall Street AIG "clients" would have likely gotten much, much less - if anything - through bankruptcy proceedings.

Geithner and the NYFRB appeared to treat Wall Street "Master of the Universe" risk takers as deserving of having their bets fully covered by the house - meaning the American taxpayer.

As The New York Times notes about the just-released Government Accounting Office (GAO) report:

Federal Reserve officials in Washington expected that the New York Fed would negotiate discounts with those companies since, without the government's intervention, they might have received far less.

An analysis commissioned by the New York Fed recommended concessions around $1.1 billion to $6.4 billion....

Although the NYFRB offered the GAO many justifications for the generous AIG client payouts under Geithner, "the Fed's actions contrast with the agreement that European governments, led by Chancellor Angela Markel of Germany, secured from some of the same institutions in October to accept discounts of up to 50 percent on their holdings of Greek debt," according to the Times.

Furthermore, even if an AIG client would only have lost 1 percent on the original value of the credit-default swaps, the NYFRB reimbursed that firm 100 percent of that value, according to the GAO.

The GAO report notes, as the Times reports, "the expressed willingness of some of the companies to accept smaller payments. In one case, when a company offered to accept a smaller amount of money, officials at the New York Fed responded that they had decided to pay the full amount of the debt, the report said."

Normally, when a firm can no longer meet its debt obligations, it files for bankruptcy and a judge oversees heavily discounted settlements on the dollar, if there are any remaining assets.

But the GAO report reveals that, once again, under Geithner and Hank Paulsen (Bush's Treasury secretary during the Wall Street crash - and former chair and CEO of Goldman Sachs), if you are a "Master of the Universe" financial firm, your risk is socialized and covered 100 percent by the American taxpayer.

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BILL BERKOWITZ FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

Over the years, the use of the term 'racial reconciliation' by the Religious Right has never been meant to promote social justice, advance the cause of civil rights or strengthen America's tattered social safety net. Instead, 'racial reconciliation' was incorporated into the agendas of various right wing religious/political organization as a marketing tool; an attempt to recruit African Americans to conservative politics. As researcher and writer Rachel Tabachnick recently pointed out at Talk To Action, the New Apostolic Reformation use of Reconciliation ceremonies "are not about pluralism, but about proselytizing - for both charismatic evangelical belief and right wing politics."

During their halcyon days of the late 1990s, the Promise Keepers men's movement made 'racial reconciliation' a focal point. These days, Lou Engle, a prominent player in the New Apostolic Reformation, is using 'racial reconciliation' to promote rallies that his organization, TheCall, has organized.

"it's important to first understand that everything the Religious Right does is in the service of one goal and one goal only: increasing the movement's political power," Rob Boston, Senior Policy Analyst with Americans United, told me in an email. "Over the years, some Religious Right leaders have seen outreach to African Americans and Latinos as a step toward building a powerful voting bloc based on 'culture war' issues.

"The thinking is that since some black and Latino churches oppose gay rights and are wary of legal abortion, members of these communities can be drawn into the Religious Right's orbit. Thus, these sporadic attempts at 'racial reconciliation' have nothing to do with improving relations between the races, facilitating inter-racial dialogue or addressing past instances of injustice. They are merely efforts to add a new constituency to the Religious Right in the hopes of making the conservative movement (read: the Republican Party) more powerful."

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MARK KARLIN, EDITOR FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

Due to past law enforcement abuses, the Oakland Police Department (OPD) has been operating under the monitoring of a federal judge overseeing a consent decree since 2003.

Although it is difficult to set aside the deplorable record of the OPD in dealing with protesters for a moment - including Occupy Oakland advocates last Tuesday - it has a history of using excessive force on a daily basis. This includes the unnecessary drawing of guns, extortion and framing arrested individuals that is so egregious that the department may be put into receivership by the federal courts.

According to a September 11, 2011 article in the Bay Citizen, just a little over a month prior to the infamous Tuesday assault on Occupy Oakland, the federal judge overseeing the police department lambasted their conduct:

In a hearing that exposed the breadth of the problems facing Oakland, a federal judge blasted the Oakland Police Department Thursday for failing to make court-ordered changes designed to reduce police misconduct and abuse.

Before a courtroom full of city leaders and police department brass, U.S. District Court Judge Thelton Henderson highlighted a series of issues that "indicate to me the city and the department still don't get it."

Shortly prior to the assault on Occupy Oakland, the superintendent of the OPD resigned - after the scathing report by the federal judge - and Howard Jordan was appointed as interim chief of police. What was Jordan's prior role as assistant chief of the OPD? According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Jordan:

has been the Police Department's top authority on bringing the force into compliance with a consent decree ordered after four officers were accused more than a decade ago of systematically beating and framing suspects.

The consent decree is the most critical issue facing the department, as a federal judge warned last week that the city faces the possibility of having its Police Department placed in federal receivership due to its failure to fully comply with the court order. Such a move could result in the city losing control over its police budget, its biggest general fund expense.

Jordan, as interim superintendent, oversaw and directed the police action against Occupy Oakland supporters.

This federal consent decree is separate from the accord that the OPD was compelled to reach in 2004, which prohibits the use of potentially lethal and harmful suppression techniques against peaceful crowds, which BuzzFlash at Truthout pointed out they violated last week.

There's a thin blue line in law enforcement between enforcing the law and breaking the law. It's clear to US District Court Judge Henderson that the OPD keeps crossing that line.

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TONY PEYSER FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

He sang a hymn at the end of it? What
Soon became undeniably clear
Is Herman improperly touched any chance
He had for a political career.

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JACQUELINE MARCUS FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

Sometimes I hate being right, but it's easy to predict what to expect from high officials in the Federal government these days. I made a bet, after the eleven workers died from the grossly negligent BP explosion, that the Attorney General of the Department of Justice, Eric Holder, would throw the phrase "criminal investigations" around to appease the public for a while, and then with time, pretend that the largest oil spill in history, and the eleven men who died from the explosion, would simply vanish as if it all never happened in the first place. It's worth noting that Holder was a defense attorney for the oil industry prior to being appointed attorney general, and it is also worth noting that Obama received more campaign money from BP than any other candidate to date. Think of Obama's photo-op from the Gulf coast during the peak of the spill when he announced to the American public, "Come on down, it's all good!" The BP pay-off worked. As a reminder to the President and his Attorney General, the spill continues to be an ongoing tragedy:

"One year after the worst oil spill in U.S. history, a sorry legacy of enduring damage, a people wronged and a region scarred remains. The BP oil rig that exploded killed 11 workers and spewed some 170 million gallons of toxic crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Whether we look to habitat and wildlife, employment and pay, or basic health and family welfare, the BP oil blowout has devastated the region. The people of the Gulf Coast still live with the disaster every day." NRDC

Or think about the contrast between Obama's Justice Department targeting Californian's legalization of medical marijuana and what Glenn Greenwald wrote in his new book "With Liberty and Justice for Some":

"The highest government officials acknowledge and authorized-torture, imprisonment without trials, the kidnapping and disappearing of detainees, warrantless domestic spying, and the destruction of incriminating evidence-are among those for which the United States has routinely condemned other nations." (p.50)

These crimes are perfectly fine, but smoking a joint if you're sick is far worse than torturing a detainee, unless you happen to be an oil executive, then you can do whatever you want (including killing people), because as Greenwald clearly explained, the rich and powerful are above the rule of law.

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PAUL BUCCHEIT FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

A number of Illinois corporations are threatening to leave the state unless their taxes are cut and state government is reduced in size. Governor Pat Quinn and Chicago's Mayor Rahm Emanuel are desperately trying to negotiate peace with Republican leaders, who have proposed a 50% state tax cut for the particularly contentious Chicago Mercantile Exchange and Chicago Board Options Exchange. For the rest of us, the state tax rate is up 66%, our biggest city has the highest sales tax in the country, and utility and transportation fees are being increased.

But Illinois corporate taxes are NOT too high, at least for top-earning companies. The rates may be high, but the amounts paid are not. A review of corporate 10-Ks provides the facts. If just 20 large Illinois firms had paid state taxes at the required statutory rate (7.3%) over the past three years, an additional $7.5 billion would have been returned, or about half of the state's current deficit.

For 20 of the largest Illinois corporations, with a total of $157 billion in net income, only $3.5 billion was paid in total state taxes.

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NIKOLAS KOZLOFF FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

With all of the media now focused on the Occupy Wall Street encampment in Lower Manhattan, it’s easy to lose sight of the real human tragedy unfolding right across the bridge. I’m referring to Brooklyn, New York’s most populous borough, which has suffered mightily since the economic meltdown of 2008. Though the crowds participating in the Occupy Wall Street movement are now more racially diverse than at the outset of the protests, most disadvantaged Brooklyn residents are still shying away from demonstrations. This fact is most glaringly evident when one takes the 2 or 3 train from Fulton Street near the protests and heads out into Brooklyn: while most of the protesters are young and white, the subway riders are predominantly African-American and Caribbean.

For the time being, the protesters certainly enjoy a certain degree of momentum and enthusiasm. However, if demonstrators want to see Occupy Wall Street turn into a mass movement in the long-term, they will have to learn how to appeal to poorer Brooklynites and to address residents’ local concerns. As they continue to organize, activists should recognize a simple premise: in New York, not all districts are created equal. Indeed, the unemployment rate in Brooklyn rose from 4.7 percent in 2008 to 10.1 percent in January 2011, making it one of the worst afflicted counties in the state. Though the recovery is helping to spur some job creation, for example in the health field, other jobs have vanished forever. In particular, crucial sectors such as construction and manufacturing have been hit significantly.

For Brooklynites, the situation is vexing and befuddling as many are forced to choose between changing careers or trying to cobble together a couple of smaller jobs. Some university graduates have become so discouraged that they have ceased looking for new employment altogether and instead pursue other options like heading to graduate school or continuing to work their old college jobs. Perhaps that is understandable given that young people have few options other than retail sales, with an abysmal starting salary of about $15,000, and waitressing.

From The Hipster Generation to Food Stamps

Think of Brooklyn and images of affluent young hipsters may come to mind. In recent years, the district of Williamsburg has become synonymous with this up and coming generation. Meanwhile, many residents living in other prosperous white neighborhoods such as Park Slope, Brooklyn Heights and Cobble Hill may be oblivious to serious economic dislocation afflicting other parts of the borough, where some are forced to subsist on social security and food stamps.

Indeed, there’s been a great racial discrepancy in the jobs figures, with black unemployment in New York averaging five points higher than whites, and Latinos averaging four points higher. Overall, New York ranks as the third most unequal city in the country in terms of wealth disparity. Hollywood, however, continues to focus upon Brooklyn’s affluent elite as witnessed by such recent films as The Switch. The movie, which stars Jennifer Aniston, deals with a young woman who finds happiness with a wealthy sperm donor friend who lives on the Promenade in Brooklyn Heights.

A world away from the Promenade, teachers are being handed the pink slip and it is disadvantaged kids in poor areas like East New York and Brownsville who are getting hit hardest. Cuts in educational services are just the tip of the iceberg for impoverished communities, however: reportedly, food pantries are being stretched to their limits. Facing a stagnant economy, high unemployment and low levels of charitable giving, not to mention high food prices, soup kitchens in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Crown Heights, Prospect Heights, Midwood and Bushwick are feeling the pinch with administrators reporting a dramatic increase in whole families turning up for help.

Reportedly, even the hipster women of Williamsburg are turning to waitressing to make ends meet. Known for its concentration of so-called “trust-funders” or, more humorously, “trustafarians,” Williamsburg has a reputation for gentrification and white entitlement. Now, however, parents of the younger generation are scaling back and have stopped buying their children new condos, let alone subsidizing rents or providing cash to spend at local boutiques or coffee houses.

In a sign of the times perhaps, one web site has sprung up to draw attention to locals’ economic plight. Called Unemployed Brooklyn, the site is run by a single woman named “MatchGirl.” While looking for a job in the fashion industry, Matchgirl uses her sewing skills to make stuffed animals and sell them over the internet to make some extra income. Matchgirl’s objective is to “vent frustrations, insights and inspirations about being unemployed…tips for cheap places to eat and shop in Greenpoint/Williamsburg, Brooklyn.”

A Painful Four Years

The recent troubles cap a number of painful years for local residents. The problems started in 2008, when Brooklyn families started to face eviction and foreclosure on condos they had purchased from corrupt developers. As a spate of real estate crimes proliferated, ranging from deed forgery to mortgage fraud schemes, Brooklyn’s district attorney belatedly announced it was time to set up a specialized unit to investigate and prosecute such offenses. When a group of young filmmakers started to produce a documentary film about the mortgage scandal in Brooklyn called Subprimed, they received harassing letters in the mail from lawyers representing local developers.

Humans weren’t the only ones to be affected by the foreclosure crisis --- even pets were displaced. In an unusual protest, animal rescue groups brought more than 400 dogs to the Brooklyn Bridge ranging from Chihuahuas to Great Danes. According to organizers, many pets lost their homes to foreclosure and animal shelters had been hard hit by the economic downturn.

By 2009, one could walk down any commercial street in Brooklyn and spot vacant storefronts and advertisements announcing 70% off sales. Take Bay Ridge and Sunset Park, middle class immigrant communities with large numbers of Chinese, Ecuadoran, Lebanese, Mexican, Russian, Ukranian and Yemenite families: though these enclaves managed to escape the high foreclosure rate hitting Bedford-Stuyvesant, East New York, Bushwick and Crown Heights, local entrepreneurs started to hurt with businesses ranging from restaurants to jewelers to clothing stores going through a downturn. In a brainstorming fever, business owners wracked their brains in an effort to lure customers, offering up everything from holiday chocolate tastings to weekend brunches to Feng Shui consultations.

Poverty Enters the Popular Culture

The economic malaise has advanced to such a degree that it has begun to have an impact upon popular culture. As far back as 2009, a local exhibit called “Plan B” explored how artists had been affected by the downturn. One exhibitor created a photo series documenting how she had been laid off by Hearst Magazines, featuring shots of boxes piled up one on top of another. Yet another artist constructed a sculpture made up of discarded circuit boards, meant to signify the “garbage economy.”

In a second work, the same exhibitor featured a simple easel meant to symbolize the local plight of artists. The idea behind the work, the artist remarked, was to “create an easel that can be stored in your room if you're renting or you only have one room and you've been kicked out of your studio due to financial concerns. What happens to a lot of artists in New York is they don't make art anymore, and then they're stuck in this crappy job where they're not really happy but they can't earn enough money to rent a studio to make more art, so I'm trying to offer them a solution.”

In theater, too, the theme of economic hard times has figured prominently. Take for example a recent play which ran at the Brooklyn Lyceum Theater in Park Slope, based on one of Arthur Miller’s lesser known works. In “The American Clock,” a Manhattan family moves to Brooklyn after losing its fortune. Playwright and essayist Miller himself moved to Brooklyn as a child, and his play is based on his own experiences during the Great Depression.

A large ensemble cast, including train-riding hobos and Wall Street tycoons, retells the story of the depression. “It’s very satisfying to be able to do this play during what we hope will be the end of the Great Recession, because I don’t think it ever really had its moment in Arthur Miller’s lifetime,” said the play’s artistic director. “He hoped this would be a warning to people, that the clock is ticking on the American dream, and the play needs to be heard.”

Brooklyn musicians, meanwhile, have been singing about economic hard times. Take Dan Costello, a songwriter based in Bushwick who became exposed to socially conscious musicians like Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie through his politically active parents. In Recession Songs, his 2009 album, Costello sings on one track “Hey Mister, where’s my bailout? Give me a bonus Mister, you gave one to AIG.” On yet another track, Costello sings “I think I’ll dumpster dive at Whole Foods, Day old bread that can still be chewed. Organic Apples that are slightly bruised, but ugly produce is still good for you.”

From Occupy Wall Street to Occupy Brooklyn

With all of the economic dislocation occurring just across the Brooklyn Bridge, it’s disappointing that Occupy Wall Street has not been more successful in attracting the poor and destitute to its cause. Yet, when you consider that many Brooklynites are simply too stressed out to attend demonstrations and are having a difficult time keeping their heads above water amidst the downturn, the lack of diversity in major demonstrations becomes understandable.

Another difficulty has to do with the spatial geography of Brooklyn: though it’s the most populous borough in the city, communities are spread out and isolated from one other and bridging cultural differences amongst the dizzying array of nationalities is a formidable task. A new group, Occupy Brooklyn, hopes to remedy the situation and has already started to organize locally. Perhaps, this most recent offshoot of the Wall Street movement might concentrate its efforts on downtown Brooklyn and Borough Hall, a busy district which by day is extremely diverse from a racial standpoint.

Though Occupy Wall Street has now become much more of a mainstream movement, it will need to do much more outreach to marginalized communities across the river if it wants to ensure that its demonstrations have the desired effect. At long last, it seems that the protesters have opted to take up my earlier pearl of wisdom and Occupy Oakland has called for a general strike no less. The action is scheduled for November 2, and could also spur a similar effort in Lower Manhattan.

If it does call for a general strike, Occupy Wall Street will have to shut down major thoroughfares like the Brooklyn Bridge. A couple of weeks ago, when protesters attempted to do precisely that, they were turned back by the police. Yet, perhaps this time the demonstrators will have increased numbers on their side and may link up with their compatriots in Brooklyn.

Will Occupy Wall Street remain a Manhattan movement, or will it manage to marshal the sympathy of those living in the outer boroughs who are most affected by the recession? In the coming weeks, Occupy must prove that it can move beyond its own base and become a truly mass movement capable of bringing about real, systemic change.

Nikolas Kozloff, the author of Revolution! South America and the Rise of the New Left, resides in Brooklyn. Visit his web site here.

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Where do such inconsequential people get the nerve to criticize their betters when they have so little to offer in terms of either foreign or domestic policy or intellect?

There was a time when I thought there could never be a more reprehensible, more ignorant presidential candidate and eventual president than George W. Bush, but I was wrong - - a man who served two terms still mispronouncing the word nuclear - - a person so insensate, as to find humor in a search for weapons of mass destruction under tables, and behind lecterns at a press correspondents' dinner. Who could have imagined that the leader of the free world could be so embarrassingly idiotic as to sign on for an unnecessary war financed by tax cuts that would leave the country in a mountain of debt?

The awful truth is, of course, that he was motivated by personal demons and incomplete intelligence that drove him to make incredibly bad foreign-policy decisions, compounded by less than well-founded economic considerations. The worst part of his malfeasance remains, however, the continuing insistence on his part and that of his ne'er-do-well vice president, that their administration was right to undertake an endless war without figuring out where or when it would end and to undermine our country's good name by using torture and calling it enhanced interrogation techniques. In a reference that often comes to mind in terms of what went on during the Bush years, there are always those who insist when a wolf is at the door that it is just a dog.

We have passed through a gruesome period of our history that will leave a multitude of unresolved issues behind, but at least for the moment the Iraq war itself is no longer our responsibility. Of course President Obama is being criticized by the likes of John McCain, Lindsey Graham and others who say we should stay in Iraq for "as long as it takes" whatever that means to them,-  - ten more years, twenty, 'til the end of time? None of the war hawks ever suggest a way to pay for our foreign involvements even as they rant repeatedly about our "debt crisis."

Unfortunately these old militants keep hanging on, but as it turns out a new crop of equally inept members of our political vessel has arisen to drive home an agenda that promises to be as bereft of intellect and clearly defined objectives as the one that preceded it. In fact the new group, supported by and elected through the good offices of the tea party, promises to be an even greater threat to the country's equilibrium than their numbingly ineffectual counterparts. Watching the current crop of presidential hopefuls is as dispiriting an exercise as any yet imagined. And the possibility that one of them might actually become president is too daunting to imagine.

Some of them are too intellectually dim to be taken seriously. Others have agendas that defy the boundaries of reasonable discourse. Between the right-wing rhetoric and the economic schemes being promulgated by the Republican zealot class voters have precious little to hang on to that is enlightened and holds any hope for the future. And beware when Rick Santorum says "let me tell you a little story." His rendition of what occurred after the birth of his son was a tear-jerker of the first order. I understand he was making a point that his severely damaged infant who died soon after birth was a real person, not just a bunch of cells to be discarded if he failed to grow and prosper. But I don't think I'll ever get past the picture I have in my head of the Santorums gathering up that infant and taking it home to show their little brother to his five children.

As for the others, not one of them seems to have a seriously developed plan to move the country forward in terms of the economy or foreign policy. It is amazing how familiar the 'solutions' they support are. What are their supporters thinking when 9-9-9 is embraced by so many of them or when Medicare is seriously discussed as a voucher program? And when House Leader Paul Ryan accuses Democrats of class warfare are there still folks naïve enough to believe his attacks when Republicans, deep in the blame game, try to accomplish their agenda with such transparent tactics?

One can only hope the electorate has gotten a little smarter this time around and will reject the gang of lack-luster Republican candidates who have nothing to offer but empty rhetoric.

MARK KARLIN, EDITOR OF BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

As the medical condition of Marine Iraq war veteran Scott Olsen appears to have improved, he is becoming the Neda Agha-Soltan - the martyr of the Iranian Green Revolution - of the "Occupy" struggle for economic justice.

What occurred this week in Oakland - including the wounding of Olsen - shouldn't have happened. In June of 2004, the Oakland Police Department reached an agreement to refrain from using the kind of bloody and militarized tactics that they employed earlier this week.

According to a November 2004 San Francisco Chronicle article:

Oakland police will no longer indiscriminately use wooden or rubber bullets, Taser stun guns, pepper spray and motorcycles to break up crowds, under an agreement announced Friday....

The new policy settles part of a federal class-action lawsuit filed by 52 people who claimed their First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and assembly were violated as they targeted two shipping companies with contracts tied to the war in Iraq.

"What we've done is create a comprehensive policy that really provides a much more sensible, reasoned approach to managing demonstrations and crowds," said Rachel Lederman of the National Lawyers Guild in San Francisco.

Obviously, as Olsen's situation demonstrates, the Oakland Police did not adhere to the letter or spirit of the 2004 agreement on Tuesday night. Lederman told the San Francisco Chronicle that when the policy was negotiated, "these projectile weapons are very dangerous. It was only a matter of luck that someone wasn't killed on April 7, 2003, in Oakland. That's what we're trying to prevent."

Lederman is referring to a 2003 Oakland police riot against anti-Iraq war demonstrators that resulted in the serious wounding of many protesters. In fact, according to ThinkProgress, "the demonstrators were not without recourse. They took the city to court, and Oakland eventually awarded $2 million to 58 demonstrators for police abuses."

You would think that after signing an agreement and paying out taxpayer money to "compensate" for abusive police practices, the Oakland Police Department would learn how to behave in a civilized fashion when dealing with people exercising their First Amendment rights.

Meanwhile, the Oakland School Board voted on Wednesday night, this week, to close five elementary schools, in large part due to budget constraints. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the Oakland school district officials say that the school closings will save about $2 million a year, about what the Oakland Police Department paid out to protesters it abused in 2003.

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BILL BERKOWITZ FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

In July 2005, the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) (http://www.zoa.org/) presented Pat Robertson with its State of Israel Friendship Award at their "Salute to Israel" dinner. "We wouldn't do it," Abraham Foxman, the national director of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), told the New York City-based newspaper, The Forward. "He's not deserving, but I have no objections to other groups honoring him."

In May 2008, after it was revealed -- at the Talk To Action website -- that Pastor John Hagee had delivered a sermon stating that God sent Hitler to hunt the Jews and chase them to Israel, the ZOA issued a press release in defense of Hagge, calling him "a staunch friend and supporter of the State of Israel, of Zionism, and of the Jewish people" (http://4international.wordpress.com/2008/06/13/zoa-is-right-to-defend-hagee/).

Now, three-plus years later, on Sunday, November 20, one of the two featured speakers at the ZOA's 114th Anniversary Louis D. Brandeis Award Dinner will be Glenn Beck.

And the ZOA has chutzpah enough to lecture the Occupy Wall Street movement about anti-Semitism.

Perhaps hoping to drum up some publicity for its upcoming dinner, the ZOA has issued a press release calling for the president, Congress and other public officials to condemn incidents of anti-Semitism in the Occupy Wall Street movement.

In the Press Release dated October 19, and titled "ZOA To President Obama & Congress - Condemn Anti-Semitism Of Occupy Wall Street Protestors," the organization called upon President Barack Obama Congress and other public figure "to explicitly condemn the manifestations of anti-Semitism that have figured prominently in the demonstrations of the 'Occupy Wall Street' protesters."

ZOA National Chairman of the Board Dr. Michael Goldblatt said, "We are frankly appalled and concerned that President Obama and Congressional leaders have not quickly and publicly condemned the numerous manifestations of anti-Semitism that occur regularly at the Occupy Wall street protests. This failure is all the more serious when the President and Congressional figures have spoken sympathetic words about these protests. When people start publicly blaming Jews and Israel for their problems, it is time for our political leaders to speak out.

"This contrasts sharply with the way Democratic leaders were quick to condemn alleged anti-black racist remarks and actions by Tea Party members on the basis of reports later proven to be false. They were willing to condemn the Tea Party even though two of its most repeatedly invited speakers have been African-American figures, Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain and Representative Allen West (R-FL)."

"The charges of racism against the Tea Party were fully documented in IREHR's report, 'Tea Party Nationalism' (http://www.irehr.org/issue-areas/tea-party-nationalism/the-report), and have never been proven to be false," Devin Burghart, vice president of the Institute for Research & Education on Human Rights, told me in an email. "Further, IREHR never made bigotry a partisan issue; it is a moral issue.  And the fact that Jewish Republicans in California condemned an anti-Semitic ad placed by a local Tea Party group, proves that opposition to bigotry is not partisan either."

Regarding charges of anti-Semitism in the Occupy Movement, Burghart said that his organization "has already pointed out that there are known anti-Semites trying to wheedle their way in to the Occupy movement.  [However,] the anti-Semites are having greater or less success depending on the city and the local movement."

Burghart added that "in a movement in which groups such as Jews for Racial and Economic Justice play a significant role as Jews, and a movement where Sukkahs were built in a number of cities, it would be a serious mistake to describe the movement as anti-Semitic."

Defending Beck

Last year, the ZOA planted itself firmly on the side of then Fox Television's Glenn Beck when he claimed that George Soros, who Beck has called "The Puppet Master," was a Nazi collaborator who, as a teenager, participated in the theft of property owned by Jews by the Nazis.

Instead of condemning Beck for his recklessness, in a press release (http://www.zoa.org/sitedocuments/pressrelease_view.asp?pressreleaseID=1968), the ZOA "expressed its concern over the strong criticism that a number of American Jewish leaders and other prominent Jews in recent days have directed at ... Beck, for his criticism of Israel/U.S.-basher, financier George Soros, regarding his behavior in Nazi-occupied Budapest in 1944."

"In that year," the press release stated. "Soros' father obtained forged papers and bribed a government official to save his son, George, then 14 years old, by taking him in as his alleged godson under a falsified Christian identity. In this capacity, George Soros accompanied his fake godfather on his appointed rounds as a government official, confiscating property from Jews who were to be deported to their deaths in Auschwitz. George Soros later said that he felt no guilt, remorse or difficulty whatsoever for being in this situation. In fact, he wrote in a forward to his father's book, 'these ten months [of the Nazi occupation] were the happiest times of my life ... We led an adventurous life and we had fun together.'

"Regarding this circumstance, Mr. Beck said recently on his radio show that Soros 'used to go around with this anti-Semite and deliver papers to the Jews and confiscate their property and then ship them off. And George Soros was part of it. He would help confiscate the stuff. It was frightening. Here's a Jewish boy helping send the Jews to the death camps. I am certainly not saying George Soros enjoyed that, even had a choice - I mean, he's 14 years old. He was surviving. So I'm not making a judgment, that's between him and G-d' ('Soros enjoys taking countries down,' November 10, 2010).

In a piece for The Daily Beast, dated November 10, 2010, Michelle Goldberg wrote that Beck's  invective  against Soros "was a symphony of anti-Semitic dog-whistles."

The criticism of Soros, who has long been a target of the right, "went beyond demonizing him; he cast him as the protagonist in an updated Protocols of the Elders of Zion, Goldberg, the author of Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism and The Means of Reproduction: Sex, Power and the Future of the World, pointed out. "He described Soros as the most powerful man on earth, the creator of a 'shadow government' that manipulates regimes and currencies for its own enrichment. Obama is his 'puppet,' Beck says. Soros has even 'infiltrated the churches.' He foments social unrest and economic distress so he can bring down governments, all for his own financial gain."

Abraham Foxman, the ADL's national director and a Holocaust survivor himself, said that "Beck's description of George Soros' actions during the Holocaust is completely inappropriate, offensive and over the top. For a political commentator or entertainer to have the audacity to say-inaccurately-that there's a Jewish boy sending Jews to death camps, as part of a broader assault on Mr. Soros, that's horrific... To hold a young boy responsible for what was going on around him during the Holocaust as pawrt of a larger effort to denigrate the man is repugnant."

While IREHR's Devin Burghart wished that the Zionist Organization of America, "may live long and be well," he emphatically noted that "they did not honor themselves by honoring Glenn Beck."

UPDATE: The Jewish Forward, in an October 28th article by Eric Alterman, comdemns the "pernicious attempt to brand protest as anti-Semitic: GOP tries to raise campaign bucks by tarring Occupy Wall Street"

It should also be noted that more than a thousand Jews chose to observe Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement and holiest day in the Jewish year, at Liberty Park in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street.

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MARK KARLIN, EDITOR OF BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

Perhaps the best way to occupy Wall Street is by pulling our money out of big banks.

Sure, it's a big inconvenience to find a credit union or local bank that then doesn't have thousands of branches around the country. But if the banks that are "too big to fail" collapse because of a lack of consumer confidence in their ability to financially serve the nation, a new system that is based on rebuilding the American economy and customer service might emerge.

In, for instance, dissecting just some of the reasons (ten) to leave Bank of America, Nomi Prins writes for Truthout that we can choose where we keep our money:

Without being broken up via a new, strong Glass-Steagall Act, when banks need to find ways to make money, they resort to extorting it from their sitting ducks, er - customers. Meanwhile, that's where credit unions, which are not-for-profits owned by their members and not by outside shareholders, come in. They generally don't engage in crazy derivatives trades, or charge unnecessary fees for holding your money or for letting you pay bills with it, or for online banking. In terms of personal attention, among other economic reasons, the credit and smaller community banks are a much better bet.

The banks "too big to fail" otherwise have us as hostages. While a pocket park in Manhattan is "occupied," the "Masters of the Universe" who control America's financial system are sitting quite pretty. Washington, DC, is in their pocket from the White House down. In the US, controlling trillions of dollar in money gives one the keys to that kind of power.

As has been pointed out over and over again, the very people who are responsible for the near financial collapse of America are still in charge through a revolving door between Wall Street and the federal government. ProPublica just did an update about all the financial chieftains who cratered the economy and have not been prosecuted. In fact, none of them have been charged with any wrongdoing as individuals.

Although the feds arrested a Goldman Sachs board director the other day, there doesn't appear to be any ongoing Department of Justice investigation to indict the main culprits of the recession. The charges against Rajat Gupta are for insider trading, a narrow range of trading for profit with privileged information.

As BuzzFlash at Truthout noted recently, "Big Banks Don't Want Your Money, Unless You Pay Them to Keep It - for Real."

Prins reminds us that the fastest way to reforming Wall Street may be by proactively moving our dollars to credit unions and banks that cater to Main Street - and where we are treated with respect, and our money is used to invest in the economic infrastructure of our communities.

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TONY PEYSER FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

Are the Republicans so foolish, now

Just single-minded doctrinaires

That they really want to double down

On tax breaks for millionaires?

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SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

WASHINGTON, Oct. 26 - Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) was joined by other members of Congress today in asking the State Department inspector general to investigate whether conflicts of interest tainted the process for reviewing a proposed crude oil pipeline from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.

In a separate letter to President Barack Obama, Sanders, Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) and a dozen other senators and congressmen cited "serious concerns" about the integrity of the review and asked the White House to withhold any decision on the project until the inspector general's investigation is completed, made public and evaluated.

TransCanada, the company proposing the Keystone XL pipeline project, reportedly was allowed to screen private firms competing to perform an environmental impact study on the pipeline.  Cardno Entrix, the politically-connected firm ultimately selected to conduct the environmental impact study, had significant financial ties to TransCanada.

"Given the significant economic, environmental, and public health implications of the proposed pipeline, we believe that it is critical that the State Department conduct thorough, unbiased reviews of the project," the lawmakers wrote to Deputy Inspector General Harold W. Geisel.

Their letter posed a series of detailed questions designed to determine whether the selection of the firm and the environmental review process was "free of actual or apparent conflicts of interest."

The 1,700-mile pipeline would carry more than half a million barrels of oil a day from Canada's tar sands to refineries in Texas. The State Department is reviewing the proposal because the pipeline would cross the international border between the United States and Canada.

To read the letter to the State Department office of the inspector general, click here.

To read the letter the President Obama, click here.

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MITCH HALL FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

The Norwegian peace researcher Johan Galtung defined peace in these terms: "By peace we mean the capacity to transform conflicts with empathy, without violence, and creatively - a never-ending process."

As an Oakland resident who voted for you to become mayor, I am disheartened that you did not respond to the Occupy Oakland movement as an opportunity to build peace in the community. Instead you authorized the police to use brute force to remove the nonviolent Occupy Oakland encampment, to confiscate and destroy their property, to arrest people exercising their rights of freedom of speech and assembly, and to fire tear gas and rubber bullets on the peaceful demonstrators who were marching the next night.

Why did you not respond more humanely and intelligently? You could have practiced empathy by holding public forums in which you and your staff listened to learn and acknowledged understanding of the real issues that motivated the movement. You could have practiced nonviolence by negotiating for the protection of public health and safety at the encampment, if those were indeed your genuine concerns. You could have practiced creativity in learning from and collaborating democratically with the protestors.

Instead, you joined the ranks of so many  politicians who ally themselves with the wealthy, powerful elites and show no real respect or care for the common people who just want decent jobs, housing, food, health care, education, and safety in this land that is being despoiled by the Wall Street speculators, corporate robber barons, and politicians who serve them.

The Occupy Oakland protestors were giving witness to the suffering of more and more people, to egregious, documented abuses of power, to the disenfranchisement and impoverishment of the "99%" while the "1%" enrich themselves selfishly and indecently in contravention to humanity's most precious ethical and spiritual norms, and to the virtual prostitution of the politicians to their insanely wealthy corporate patrons.

Yes, Mayor, you have demonstrated that you and the police at your beck and call have the power to enforce your will, violently if you choose. That took no imagination or creativity and showed no empathy. You have only added one more dismal episode to the chronicles of injustice that these courageous Occupy Oakland protestors were trying to call to the attention of the public, the media, and people, such as you, in positions of power.

If your conscience ever awakens about this failed opportunity for truly meaningful leadership, if you ever feel remorse for the suffering you have ignored and also augmented through police action, I wonder if you will ever apologize and try to build peace by practicing empathy, nonviolence, and creativity and addressing the legitimate concerns that have brought people out onto the streets all over this country and world in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street.

UPDATE: On Thursday, Mayor Quan issued a statement of regret over the police riot in Oakland and expressed personal support for the Occupy Wall Street movement. As to how the Oakland police will take action in the future, it remains to be seen.

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