Instead, I’ll just tell you this: if you live in PA and you’re having trouble running your Mozilla-based internet and email, if you can’t get to Wikipedia, or you can’t look for a job because craigslist is down, blame Bob Casey, who continues to support this dangerous and misguided legislation, even though support for it is peeling away like skin off a rotten banana. It’s shelved in the House, opposed by the White House, and dying in the Senate.

Bob Casey’s had plenty of opportunity to drop his support. the fact that he’s pushing on into strong head winds shows either that he truly believes Comcast and the government should be able to censor the Internet, or that he doesn’t exactly understand how the Internet works.

Neither reflects well on the man. With unemployment pushing 9% in PA, and 12% in Philly, the last thing we need is the country’s biggest job site shutting down. But that’s where we are, because of Bob Casey. I’m sure the unemployed are grateful to him for standing up for the likes of Comcast.

Also worth noting: Republican Pat Toomey opposes the Protect IP Act. Just sayin’.

That said, nowhere on the web is there a more perfect example of how the Wall Street Occupation is being absorbed by political thinkers who represent the status quo.

September 26: “Wall Street Wankathon”:

I don’t understand why I am supposed to care about this whole #OccupyWallStreet protest. There is no platform, no legislative vehicle, no coherent call to action, no overriding message, and very little in the way of any point. While the enterprise is less nihilistic than the Rodney King riots or the recent unpleasantness in England, it is even less effectual. I am not sure they are even being successful in inconveniencing anyone. The best I can say for the whole effort is that at least they haven’t created a right-wing backlash. If you want to hurt Wall Street without hurting everyone else in the process, develop a legislative goal that sticks it to Wall Street without further tanking the economy. Walking around in circles in Lower Manhattan and chanting “This is what Democracy looks like” is little different from holing up in your apartment with a week’s worth of free porn. It’s nothing more than a Wank-a-Thon, and I find the whole thing boring and depressing.

Shorter: You damn kids get offa my lawn!

September 28: “What’s Eating the Left”:

despite efforts at campaign finance reform, the problem has grown much worse over the last decade. Anyone looking at the Democrats to solve this problem is going to be disappointed. Even where the Democrats are attempting to do the right thing (such as increasing marginal income tax rates on the wealthy) they are easily thwarted. So, I see the desire and the need for some kind of movement that doesn’t rely directly on politics. Neither political party is capable or really even willing to create a fairer system or to truly protect us from the excesses of global capitalism.

In any case, I understand the motive behind the #OccupyWallStreet drive, and I can see why people are seeking non-political avenues to express their discontent. But I’m bothered by the lack of specificity in the movement….

Is that really the point? Is Wall Street oozing corruption and criminality in a way that it was not last year or the year before that? Is it less accountable than it was before the Dodd-Frank bill passed? Or, is it more that people are sick of seeing how much these bastards pay themselves as they ship our jobs overseas and try to whittle away the safety net?

I suppose the answers to those questions will depend on whom you ask. But I get the feeling that people like Greenwald consider Wall Street investment firms and banks as criminal organizations by definition, rather than by circumstance. Or, to be more precise, there are many on the left who don’t believe in capitalism to begin with. They didn’t believe in it before the September 2008 crash, and they especially don’t believe in it now. And without getting into a defense of capitalism, I have to say that I’m not comfortable with a movement that has no more coherent message than ‘capitalism sucks.’ I don’t even like the name. You’ll occupy Wall Street until _____ happens?

Shorter: “Yes, things are fucked up, and neither party can be expected to change things. But these kids probably don’t even believe in capitalism, fucking COMMIES.”

October 2: “Abandoned, the President Needs to Pivot”:

Meanwhile, as the president tries to arouse the left in support of a modest, reasonable Jobs Bill, the left’s heart has left the building and is now focused on protests against corporate greed and mismanagement. …

This is a recipe for the failure of the Obama presidency and the emergence of a conservative revolution in this country unlike anything we’ve ever seen…

Yet, the eruption of protest on the left can help the president if he recognizes the opportunity. Unlike what Steven D has recommended, I do not think the administration should align itself with the protestors. What they should do is what FDR did with Huey Long. While the protesters call for Wall Street to “Share the Wealth” the president should tack to the left but maintain himself as the safer alternative. “If you don’t give me a win on this jobs bill, these protests will continue to grow and the pitchforks will really come out.” I don’t know how many of the protesters would agree with my advice, but I do think that at least part of what they’re trying to do is to change the political consensus in this country and yank the discourse out of the death-hold it seems to have become locked in…

The administration has to look at this as an opportunity, because if it doesn’t adapt to take advantage of it, his effort on jobs will die a pathetic death, and his presidency will likely follow.

Shorter: “Holy shit, these people are serious and actually have a point! If the administration can’t figure out who to use this to their advantage, they are FUCKED for 2012.”

To me, it’s like that scene in the old 1980s movie, “War Games”, where the nuclear weapons are about to be launched and the heroes are sitting around this computer muttering “learn, damn you.”

I don’t understand why I am supposed to care about this whole #OccupyWallStreet protest. There is no platform, no legislative vehicle, no coherent call to action, no overriding message, and very little in the way of any point.

…and then read that the pilots union joined the occupation, followed by the transit union just voted to join them as well, as have Verizon’s unionized workers, with the IWW expressing their support,

all i hear is this song:

Those who don’t understand why they should care about Occupy Wall Street are the same people who year after year tell me why I must support the Democrats, while at the same time openly admitting that the Democrats will never pass the legislation I want to see passed, because it is the best i can hope for. While these kids, who see no future for themselves, and their supporters know the truth:

“There comes a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can’t take part, you can’t even passively take part; and you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon all the apparatus, and you’ve got to make it stop, And you’ve got to indicate to the people who run it, the people who own it, that unless you’re free the machine will be prevented from working at all.” –Mario Savio

And so they don’t see what’s happening.

This is the first “Piggie of the Week” I did all myself, from the writing to the one-the-street interviews, to the capturing and rough cuts, to the final edits. Big props and tons of gratitude to Brodzilla and Sean for the editorial guidance and advice, teaching me how to edit video and audio, including chromakeying, into the final package you see here.

I think it’s pretty ok for a first-timer, and regardless of any skips and jumps, I learned a LOT over the course of the project. I sure hope I get to do more of these.

Since then, my benefits have arrived. I’ve submitted a letter of interest to a job coaching position, a friend at a global document management corporation has helped my resume get some attention, and I’m working on a letter for an editorial assistant position.

While those positions are, for now, up in the air, I’ve also scored two volunteer positions: one at Woodshop Films, the guys who produce the brilliant Kenzo News, Scrapple News, and Sulimays Kitchen series; and another at the Dock Street Brewery, where I’ll be hopefully learn some of the skills I need to successfully apply for brewing positions in the future.

It’s true that sometimes opportunity doesn’t knock so much as it shows you the door. It’s also true that you have to grab the bull by the horns.

The first question was about discrimination about atheists. Another wanted to know Obama’s biggest regrets. Another asked about compromise, what does it mean? And finally one person asked about Roosevelt’s epic fuckup that plunged the US back into the red in 1937. I swear, these questions were so thoroughly unrelated to the supposed topic, I had to wonder if they were plants, especially the young woman who wanted to shake the president’s hand because he is so awesome.

Along the way, the president informed me that Democrats only read the NYT and watch MSNBC, while conservatives and republicans only read the WSJ and watch FOX News. This is such a ridiculous and shallow characterization, i have to wonder if the president really believes it: if so, can someone please bring him out of his bubble?

And oh yes, much was made of the false and inaccurate analogy that governments, like families, must tighten their belts, as if families never deficit spend (ahem, college loans, mortgages, home equity loans, carloans) and when they do that they put credit card payments ahead of putting food on the table.

The whole thing was quite free of substance, and I’m sure the president was grateful that he had to answer questions about atheists facing discrimination rather than the prospect of senior and soon-to-be-senior citizens living out their old age eating cat food. I’m sure he was glad he didn’t have to talk too much about how cutting Medicaid would put the financial burden of caring for sick, elderly parents on families, not the government.

I did learn one thing though: the president may be sincere about his desire to gut these programs, but reading the comments at the linked Daily Kos article, you see an equally sincere group of activists getting angrier by the second. And you know, contrary to the claims of some people, we’re not all a bunch of upper middle class white progressives who just don’t get it. Some of us are counting on social security, medicare,and medicaid when WE get older, because our careers and paychecks have stagnated for years, pensions no longer exist, and there is no such thing as job security anymore.

I’d put the president’s re-election at 50/50. If these cuts go through, I’d put my bets on his challenger.

I learned back in 1992 that Bill Clinton was a lying piece of shit, not a progressive, and barely a Democrat.

From the description:

Leaked cell phone footage of Bill Clinton cozying up to Paul Ryan

The day after the stunning upset in the special congressional election in upstate New York, Rep. Paul Ryan is a man under fire.

ABC News was behind the scenes with the Wisconsin Congressman and GOP Budget Committee Chairman when he got some words of encouragement none other than former President Bill Clinton.

“So anyway, I told them before you got here, I said I’m glad we won this race in New York,” Clinton told Ryan, when the two met backstage at a forum on the national debt held by the Pete Peterson Foundation. But he added, “I hope Democrats don’t use this as an excuse to do nothing.”

Ryan told Clinton he fears that now nothing will get done in Washington.

“My guess is it’s going to sink into paralysis is what’s going to happen. And you know the math. It’s just, I mean, we knew we were putting ourselves out there. You gotta start this. You gotta get out there. You gotta get this thing moving,” Ryan said.

Clinton told Ryan that if he ever wanted to talk about it, he should “give me a call.” Ryan said he would.

Not our friends by any definition. We’re fucking doomed.

I don’t care what kind of bullshit semantic games they play: if the Democrats vote to cut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid not only will I not vote for them, I will actively support their opponents. I would rather deal with a hater who tells me to my face that he’s going to fuck with me for the next 4 years than a sweet-talker who stabs me in the back.

I suspect many Americans feel the same way. Don’t be fooled by phrases like “chained CPI” and “COLA adjustments”: it’s all about cutting your benefits and picking your pockets to avoid raising taxes on the rich:

As explained at length here, the idea is to peg federal Cost of Living Adjustments to a new, stingier measure of inflation.

Experts say the new index (the so-called Chained Consumer Price Index) is a more realistic metric for measuring inflation’s impact on peoples’ behavior. But the fact remains that if the change goes through as part of a grand bargain to lower deficits and raise the debt limit, retirees will receive less money each month than they’re currently promised.

And if you think Democrats are playing dumb because they want a deal, think again. They’re some of the biggest supporters of this plan.

“We make the determinations right now for benefits based upon CPIU,” Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC), one of the Dems’ principal debt limit negotiators. He’s referring to the current index the government uses to calculate Social Security’s Cost of Living Adjustment. And that’s what they’re talking about changing. “Now the question is will some other look at CPI make sense? And I think that it makes sense to look at it all to see what is an accurate account, a better way to determine benefits. I certainly wouldn’t walk away from that kind of discussion.”

Just over a year ago, I objected to the way the tea baggers were threatening and disrespecting their reps: today, if I had the chance, I’d spit on James Clyburn myself, and so would very other senior citizen in this country regardless of race. You can call him and tell him that you’re not down with eating cat food in your old age: 202-225-3315. In fact, you can find YOUR rep here and your Senator here. Tell ‘em all if they make you eat catfood, you’re gonna make sure they don’t have a job anymore.

Better the enemy you KNOW than the fake friend.

Mr. Obama, who is to meet at the White House with the bipartisan leadership of Congress in an effort to work out an agreement to raise the federal debt limit, wants to move well beyond the $2 trillion in savings sought in earlier negotiations and seek perhaps twice as much over the next decade, Democratic officials briefed on the negotiations said Wednesday.

The president’s renewed efforts follow what knowledgeable officials said was an overture from Mr. Boehner, who met secretly with Mr. Obama last weekend, to consider as much as $1 trillion in unspecified new revenues as part of an overhaul of tax laws in exchange for an agreement that made substantial spending cuts, including in such social programs as Medicare and Medicaid and Social Security — programs that had been off the table.
[...]
The intensifying negotiations between the president and the speaker have Congressional Democrats growing anxious, worried they will be asked to accept a deal that is too heavily tilted toward Republican efforts and produces too little new revenue relative to the magnitude of the cuts.

Congressional Democrats said they were caught off guard by the weekend White House visit of Mr. Boehner — a meeting the administration still refused to acknowledge on Wednesday — and Senate Democrats raised concerns at a private party luncheon on Wednesday.

I’ll bet they’re growing nervous: Wall Street’s president, who has done everything in his power to protect banks and has not prosecuted one single CEO responsible for the crash is now cutting secret deals (most transparent adminsitration EVAH!) with the Republicans to cut Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicaid. This puts pretty much every Democratic seat at risk, because not only do old people vote, but the Republicans will campaign hypocritically but accurately that the Democrats cut their benefits. This kind of appeasement NEVER works, and the fact that the president is proposing to bend you over so the Republicans will release the hostages tells you all you have to know.

This president is not on our side, in my opinion. This president is, in fact, a Republican. If these are his proposals, if he is THAT out of touch with the real world, then I’m not voting for him again, and don’t think you should either.

From “Hope and Change” to “George Bush in blackface” in less than 4 years. The mask is off. We gotta fight back.

Call your congressman, call your senator, tell them no cuts to Social Security, medicare, and medicaid.

White House…202-456-1111

House Minority Leader: Nancy Pelosi …..202-224-4965

Senate majority Leader: Harry Reid…202-224-3542

DCCC: Van Hollen…202-225-5341

UPDATE: You just lost Oliver Willis, President Bush, I mean Obama. Keep pushing it, watch what happens.

Just so we’re clear, Tom Corbett and the rest of the newly-elected right wing governors care about re-election about as much as Mohammed Atta cared about landing planes. They are rooks and knights in a game of eleven dimensional chest.

Cutting welfare to work programs and homelessness prevention programs while refusing to close corporate tax loopholes that would generate enough revenue to keep these programs open, as Tom Corbett and the Republicans’ budget does, makes no sense at all, unless you are deliberately trying to sabotage your state’s economy. Same with Christie’s cuts to AIDS, seniors, and education, or Walker’s devastating attacks on unions. Why would you do this? For greater political gain that goes beyond your own immediate career.

The goal of each of these governors, many in swing states like New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Florida, and Wisconsin is twofold: to return to power by generating as much economic misery as possible in the hope that people will turn on the Democrats (useless and flabby as they may be); and barring that, to punish the people that didn’t reward them with a vote.

It is deeply cynical, totally evil, politics. But it is what it is: the sooner activists and reformers understand and act on the fact that these people do not give a shit, the better. We gotta not only fight back, but do so in every way possible, pulling no punches. They have to be tea partied, but from the left. Bring the press and a hungry child whose mom lost her food stamps to meet Tom Corbett… but spring it on him in a “gotcha”moment. Set up a tent city filled with homeless seniors outside of every Dominic Pileggi event, and when the cops move in to throw ‘em out, resist and get arrested (and hopefully beaten: no one likes seeing an elderly woman with a black eye). Make Chris Christie yell at a child with AIDS. Surprise Tom Corbett with a crying child. Ratfuck ‘em in every way until these conservative Republican assholes, and their Democratic allies if necessary, are as popular as gonorrhea, and then ratfuck ‘em again til even their own spouses won’t sleep in the same room as them. I’ll even go so far as to recommend Breitbart tactics if necessary. Corbett doesn’t care if he’s re-elected, but you can bet Dominic Pileggi does. You can bet Mike Stack does. Start hitting the churches in the burbs, bringing old ladies to testify about the pain, split ‘em from the churches. We gotta make people like Corbett so toxic, his own party won’t stand with him. And it’s gotta be explicit: you stop fucking with our people, we’ll stop fucking with you.

We gotta start playing our own 11-dimensional chess, and playing to win: otherwise, we and the people we try to help are nothing but pawns in someone else’s game.