MLK Memorial Ceremony Today: A new memorial to Martin Luther King Jr. has been erected in Washington, with a three-hour commemoration held today after delays from Hurricane Irene.
Occupy Everywhere: Events for the Occupy movement are going on everywhere, including now London and Hong Kong. Closer to home, after a successful day of rallies yesterday, the protesters are going strong today. Check out our News & Politics events calendar!
Uganda Welcomes US Help: Reported by Al Jazeera, no less. The 100 combat-ready advisers will not actually participate in combat with rebels.
Man Dies Filming GM Commercial: In his “German-made DG Flugzeugbau” glider, with a helicopter filming him from above while he was pulled by a car. He crashed into a tree shortly after take-off. I absolutely hate reading corporate sympathy statements about deaths they might potentially be involved in—GM has a nice one to offer in this piece.
Two-Decade Anniversary of Eastern Washington Firestorms: The Spokesman-Review, a Spokane paper I’ve really come to appreciate for its original local content, has a neat piece on a firestorm that happened 20 years ago today, one year after I was born.
Cain Seems More Scary Now: Apparently, he was tapped to run by the Koch brothers’ Americans for Prosperity, though it looks like Cain might be able to be more than a message platform in the nomination race.
Emotional About Guardrails: And appropriately so, as this Sumner businessman would have to lay off workers if WSDOT proceeds with its ban of wooden guardrails.
Microsoft Has Solved Its Tech Problems: All this time that I thought they had shitty products—apparently they just had shitty marketing. And they’re fixing that tonight!
Rock out with Wing after reading your Morning News. Aren’t we all on the Highway to Hell, Wing?
I totally forgot about the firestorms in Eastern Washington. And I was in college in Spokane at the time…guess they didn’t make that much of an impression on me.
South Vietnam Welcomes US Help: The 100 combat-ready advisers will not actually participate in combat with rebels.
party like its 1959…..
TPM had a big headline the other day about the “advisors” in Africa, but few other sites seemed to have picked up the story.
I wondered if it was because all the other liberal sites missed the boat or if TPM was emphasizing something that happens all the time–US advisors being sent somewhere.
(TPM also has a story up about Cain wanting to put up an electrified border fence to kill undocumented people.”
Four “I”s in the morning news is four too many….
Nothing about Obama flushing CLASS?
In a typical Friday afternoon bad-news dump, the Obama administration let it be known that the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) program, one component of Obamacare, was going belly up.
Democrats insisted that not only was this problem sustainable but that it was going to make money and thereby offset the cost of the rest of Obamacare. This was ludicrous, and the administration finally came clean on Friday. The Washington Post reported:
“The Obama administration ended a major benefit in the 2010 health-care law on Friday, announcing that a program to offer Americans insurance for long-term care was simply unworkable. Although the program had been dogged from the start by doubts about its feasibility, its elimination marks the first time the administration has backed away from a key piece of what remains of President Obama’s signature legislative achievement. Republican critics of the law immediately said the decision proved that the legislation is unsound and unsustainable. Because the program had been projected to reduce the federal deficit by $86 billion over the next 10 years, terminating it worsens the nation’s budget picture.”
Last night after the TV news crews left, Seattle’s finest engaged in what might be considered torture, by repeatedly patrolling Westlake Park to rouse those who seemed to be dozing, and to shake any tents that when lifted felt as if there was someone inside. When I asked several of them why they were doing so, one replied, “The park is closed, so you’re not allowed to sleep here.” I’m feeling the sleep deprivation a bit this morning.
During these rounds, many of us followed the team of *eight* officers who were assigned to wasting our tax dollars on Occupy Seattle harassment detail, documenting their actions with video cameras, playing the ukulele, softly repeating, “Why are they so intense, while we’re in tents?” and — this was great — very loudly reading the U.S. Bill of Rights via the people’s mic. It’s not often that I want to make police officers’ jobs more difficult, but this was a time that many of us hoped to share the misery.
My tent was a couple layers in from the perimeter, so I went to bed a bit before five o’clock and slept without harassment. At a bit after 6:00 a.m., I awoke to someone stepping on the foot of my tent and someone saying, “Wake up. You have an hour to move your tents or get wet when Parks starts cleaning.” I packed up my bedding, got out of the tent, dismantled it, and found that the aluminum pole at the foot had been broken, and expressed frustration with this fact. A woman sitting on a bench nearby said she’d seen a female police officer step on my tent.
I approached Sergeant Cook, the only female officer on duty at the time, with my broken pole and calmly told her that someone had seen her damage my tent. Her response was, “The tent that’s here illegally? You can file a claim downtown. I’m glad I wasn’t injured.” Slipping back into “never talk to the police” mode as five other cops focused on me along with her, I refrained from explaining that her role is not judge, jury, or executioner. “What’s the matter? Cat got your tongue?” she taunted, before I delivered a deadpan thank-you and walked away.
I believe I’ve witnessed and video recorded every arrest that has happened at the Westlake Park occupation over the past couple weeks. I believe I’ve been in attendance during every related police action of significance. During that time, I have repeatedly stood up for our peace officers, telling people that while I’ll reserve judgement on whether their actions were necessary, I had no complaints about the manner in which those actions were conducted. Prior to last night, they have acted with professionalism, doing an admirable job of conducting relatively difficult operations while expressing next to no emotion, often during forceful expression of very negative emotion by the targets of their actions. Not only was there nothing approaching brutality, but I’ve not seen any of the “I’m the boss” attitude that police typically exude when throwing their weight around off-camera.
Sargent Cook’s attitude — not just this morning, but last night as well — tainted the image of the rest of the officers who have been involved. Christ, what an asshole.
Where can I file that claim? I’m already downtown, and won’t be leaving for a while.
That sentiment was echoed by a slew of Republican leaders on the Hill. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell reminded us that this is emblematic of the problems with the larger, gimmick-ridden health-care legislation: “The Obama administration . . . acknowledged what they refused to admit when they passed their partisan health bill: the CLASS Act was a budget gimmick that might enhance the numbers on a Washington bureaucrat’s spreadsheet but was destined to fail in the real world. However, it is worth remembering that the CLASS Act is only one of the unwise, unsustainable components of an unwise, unsustainable law. We should repeal the CLASS Act and the rest of the health spending law and replace it with the type of common-sense reforms that lower costs and [that] Americans support.”
To say that this is an embarrassment for the gang in the White House and the Democratic congressional leadership, who we already knew could not shoot straight, would be a gross understatement. The failure of CLASS, predicted by conservatives, sprang from the Democrats’ insistence to pass some “historic” health-care bill, any such bill, and deal with the consequences later. Well, later is now. You can be sure that this — along with the failed stimulus bill, the high unemployment rate and the massive debt — will be frequent features in Republicans’ 2012 ads.
5
So by very loudly reading the U.S. Bill of Rights via the people’s mic you made the police officers’ jobs of waking the riffraff more difficult?
You’re brilliant, man.
Just brilliant…….
5
Sergeant Cook totally owns your bitch ass, pussy.
Quit while you can…..
9
That was rude and thoughtless.
And physically difficult, if not impossible.
Phil should shove bent tent pole up his ass.
5
ukelele?
really?
@6 It’ll be a cold day in hell when I give a rat’s ass about what Ryan or McConnell say or think.
It was JFK who sent combat advisers into Vietnam wasn’t it?
@13, Ike sent the first small group in. It was after the South Vietnamese President was killed the JFK started to increase the number of advisers.
It’s nice that war criminal Obama won’t prosecute war criminals here but wants to go after war criminals in other countries.
Officer Cook’s response sounds like an admission. Please do file the complaint.
“Flugzeugbau.” God, I hate German.
Our dear conservatroll appears to be projecting. Again.
I was in high school during the firestorms in Spokane. Theres even a piece in my yearbook about it. I just remember the sky being smoky and orange and the burnt smell in the air.
@14: Thanks, Cato.
16
to file the complaint he must admit that he had a tent illegally there.
how much will a new tent pole cost vs how much is the fine, lawyer bills etc if he is charged….
Sergeant Cook punked his ass.
He should slink away before he makes it worse for himself.
@20: I think the idea is that Sergeant Cook gets written up. You do know that there’s no way that the city’s going to press charges against tent-dwellers, right? It’d be far more trouble than it’s worth for them.
Look, Alleged, I know you’re just trying to put everybody down, but you might want to think things through a little, because you’re not making any sense.
21
Written up for what?
Encountering obstructing illegal debris while carrying out her duties?
Like she said, lucky for Phil’s ass she didn’t get hurt.
Who knows, she still might decide she did….
Besides;
Who witnessed this atrocity?
More trouble than its worth?
Like rousting the hobos in the middle of the night?
Junior, you’re missing the Sponge Bob Marathon….
21
Written up for what?
Encountering obstructing illegal debris while carrying out her duties?
Like she said, lucky for Phil’s ass she didn’t get hurt.
Who knows, she still might decide she did….
Besides;
Who witnessed this atrocity?
More trouble than its worth?
Like rousting the hobos in the middle of the night?
Junior, you’re missing the Sponge Bob Marathon….
21
Written up for what?
Encountering obstructing illegal debris while carrying out her duties?
Like she said, lucky for Phil’s ass she didn’t get hurt.
Who knows, she still might decide she did….
Besides;
Who witnessed this atrocity?
More trouble than its worth?
Like rousting the hobos in the middle of the night?
Junior, you’re missing the Sponge Bob Marathon….
slog should really invest in a decent server….
Damn, Phil, that shit is terrible. I’m so sorry the cops did that. Emails to mayor’s office and council on the way – there’s no call for that pointless aggravation by the cops, it’s senseless. Thanks for letting us know.
P.S. in the news for us nerdies today, Zachary Quinto after years of thousands of us making fun of him for not doing so yet, has decided to publicly come out, ever so casually, by repeatedly inserting the phrase “as a gay man” into some interview responses. Will Anderson Cooper ever? Michael K at dlisted has the best perspective as usual:
http://www.dlisted.com/2011/10/16/zachar…
On the day MLK is honored with a statue on the National Mall, I am reminded of Marion Anderson and the concert she gave in front of the Lincoln Memorial. Government can and must be the engine for change if it is to remain a government for and by the people.
@22-24: I dunno, property damage? Unless she can show that doing her job as an officer required that she break the tent, she can be held liable.
@25:
>cannot into Internet
>blames server
ISHYGDDT.
@22-24: Also, I know nothing of this Spengbab marathon. I suppose I’m begging the question of why you do…
@26 Gay pon farr! Thank you for that, gus.
I filed a coplaint about Sgt. Cook’s actions with the Seattle Police Department Office of Professional Accountability.
@31: You know, all this thread needed was a little bit of the old “ooga booga where the white women at?” bullshit. Thank you for bringing this bullshit to us, that we may now scorn it and by extension you.