‘Make Wall St. Pay’ campaign debuts by occupying bank branch, House speaker’s office

from Raw Story

A new campaign by a national network of activists kicked off Monday morning with a splash as it led hundreds of fed up homeowners in a series of protests that brought business to a halt at a major bank and the House speaker’s office.

The National People’s Action network picked Monday to launch the “Make Wall Street Pay” campaign thanks to another show in town: the National Association of Attorneys General’s Convention in Washington, D.C.

But they didn’t stop there.

Moving from the meeting of all 50 Attorneys General, the crowd made their way to a Bank of America branch on Pennsylvania Ave. While about 300 stood outside, another 300 moved indoors, filling up the lobby and bringing business to a standstill.

[read the rest, here]

Heavily Redacted and Edited Police Helicopter Footage of 9/11

A FOIA request has resulted in the release of this footage shot from a NYPD helicopter on the morning of 9/11. Several things make it interesting, but what stands out most is how heavily redacted and edited the footage is and no one seems to be mentioning that fact.  This is official evidence from one of the worst crimes committed in recent memory and yet the NYPD or NIST feels like they are free to heavily edit and redact sections of it at will. And no one bats an eye. Notice all the obvious edits after the helicopter lands. The guy on the right just disappears, the guy on the left blinks across the landing zone, twice… they even redacted the audio track for some reason while leaving in the video. For Christ’s sake, they even edited out the entire “collapse” of the North Tower and no one says a fucking word in the MSM.

In light of these edits, some comments on Huffpo’s “coverage” of the story make mention of this obvious fact only to be met with comments about “loony Twoofers”.

Neoliberal News of the Day – Mar. 07/ 2011

British MI6 Agents and British Military Special Forces Arrested in Libya – DON’T BELIEVE THE BULLSHIT – They were caught trying to make contact with rebel leaders in order to either kill them, kidnap them, or buy them off. Britain and the U.S. are trying to spin this to sound like they are trying to HELP pro-democracy fighters in Libya… it’s BULLSHIT. These are NOT “diplomats” any more than the CIA guy in Pakistan was a “diplomat”. These are killers and assasins who were tasked with “fixing” the problem of the rebel leadership.

Bolivian President Uses Former DEA Agent’s Book to Send Message to the World – “Bolivian President Evo Morales earlier this week held up a book, titled “La Guerra Falsa,” for the world to see. The tome Morales displayed for the cameras on March 3 at a military ceremony in La Paz, Bolivia is the Spanish-language version of “The Big White Lie,” a book penned by former DEA undercover agent Mike Levine. The book exposes the CIA’s corrupt involvement in the drug war, including its role in the “cocaine coup” in Bolivia in 1980.
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Idaho students walk out over education cuts – “Public school students staged a series of walkouts in districts across the state of Idaho last week to protest planned budget cuts and teacher layoffs. Protests began last month after state superintendent Tom Luna called for increasing class sizes in elementary, middle, and high schools and the dismissal of 770 teachers. The state also aims to tie teacher pay to student performance on standardized tests.”

Demand for general strike wins support at Wisconsin protests – “Teachers, firefighters, nurses and other public employees were joined by union and nonunion private sector workers in construction, steel, auto, trucking and other industries, along with thousands of college and high school students who marched around the state capitol building.”

Conservative “Sleeper Agents” in Hollywood? The Right-Wing’s New War for Culture – “And there is no small amount of jealously over the skills on display in liberal Hollywood, including one presenter’s embarrassed compliment for the narrative structure of James Cameron’s Terminator–embarrassed, because Cameron also made the anti-war and environmentalist Avatar. The pro-charter school polemic Waiting for Superman was the subject of unqualified support. As I wrote at In These Times “Superman, directed by An Inconvenient Truth director Davis Guggenheim, was panned by many education scholars. But for many conservatives, the film’s success was proof that conservative ideas can win ground on the left, especially when they’re dressed up as a story of poor people of color fighting for justice.””

Bill Daley, White House Chief Of Staff, Pressed About Lack Of Jail Time For Wall Street Culprits - “Pressed a bit further, Daley refused once again to say whether “it is illegitimate or not” for the people to demand jail time for the culprits of the crash. “Politicians should not get involved. Producers, directors can do that. But politicians should not get involved.””

Karzai Rejects U.S. Apology For Killing Of Nine Afghan Boys - “According to a statement from his office, Hamid Karzai told Gen. David Petraeus, the top commander of coalition forces in Afghanistan, that expressing regret was not sufficient in last week’s killing of the boys, ages 12 and under, by coalition helicopters.”

Gates: U.S. Afghanistan Involvement Should Continue - “U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Monday that both the U.S. and Afghan governments agree the American military should remain involved in Afghanistan after the planned 2014 end of combat operations to help train and advise Afghan forces.”

Dick Durbin On Democratic Spending Cut Proposals: We’ve ‘Pushed This To The Limit’ - ““To go any further is to push more kids out of school, to stifle the innovation which small businesses and large alike need to create more jobs, and it stops the investment in infrastructure which kills good paying jobs right here in the United States,” said Durbin”

White House Offers First Budget Compromise As Negotiations With GOP Begin - “Briefing reporters at the White House while negotiators made their way to the VP’s office on the Hill, top administration officials said they had agreed to cut another $6 billion from the measure (and would be willing to go even further) in an attempt to bridge the party divide.”

Egyptian People Seized State Security Building and All Records of State Repression Under Mubarak’s Rule; Prosecutions to Follow – “The protesters who stormed the offices of Egyptian state security this weekend say the buildings are proof of “the greatest privacy invasion in history”, filled with transcripts of phone conversations, surveillance reports and stark reminders of the torture carried out inside.”

Protest Organizers Ordered to Shut Offices in Iraq – “Two political parties that led demonstrations in Baghdad over the past two weeks said on Monday that security forces controlled by Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki had ordered them to close their offices. The actions came amid growing concerns that Mr. Maliki, who is backed by the United States, is using force and other measures to stifle this country’s democracy.”

Saudi Arabia bans protests, drafts troops ahead of weekend demonstration – “The UK’s Telegraph newspaper reported that Saudi’s Interior Ministry had issued a statement on national television warning that protests “contradicted Islamic laws and social values”, and threatened violence against any disruptive elements.”

Bahrain’s Promised Spending Fails to Quell Dissent – “The leaders of Bahrain’s opposition movement said Sunday that they would not be mollified by offers of money and jobs, raising the prospect of a protracted standoff between protesters and the embattled government of this strategically important Persian Gulf island nation.”

Gov. Rick Scott’s proposed education budget: $1.75 billion in cuts – “Scott proposes a K-12 budget for the coming year that is $1.75 billion less than the current education budget. About half of that reduction is because the federal government won’t be sending the $873 million stimulus for education that it sent last year.”