Police In Riot Gear Remove 'Occupy SD' Protesters

Occupy San Diego Protesters Removed For Unlawful Assembly

SAN DIEGO -- A legion of officers in riot gear cleared Occupy San Diego protesters out of their unauthorized urban squatters' camp at Civic Center Plaza early Friday, arresting dozens of activists who refused to cooperate with the predawn expulsion.

The dismantling of the downtown tent community, deemed an unlawful assembly by the city, began about 2 a.m. and lasted roughly 45 minutes, according to San Diego police. There were no reports of injuries as 40 people were taken into custody, though two of the detainees resisted and had to be forcibly subdued, SDPD public affairs Lt. Andra Brown said.

During the sweep, overseen by Police Chief William Lansdowne and his highest-ranking department heads, some of the demonstrators relocated south to Children's Park. Since that recreation area is closed daily between midnight and 6 a.m., officers cleared it, as well, taking 11 more people into custody in the process.Participants in the three-week-old rally -- part of a loose-knit nationwide movement against perceived corporate greed and government corruption -- reassembled later in the morning for a solidarity march. They wound up at SDPD headquarters on Broadway just as a news conference on the law enforcement crackdown was getting under way.Inside a conference room, Assistant Police Chief Boyd Long addressed reporters to the sounds of dozens of protesters chanting and beating drums in an adjacent courtyard. Among the slogans shouted by the group was "Let them out!" referring to their jailed comrades.Those arrested -- 37 men and 14 women, ranging in age from 18 to 50 -- will face charges of illegal lodging, unlawful assembly, resisting police and encroachment on public property, Long said."The department supports the rights of those who choose to peacefully protest," he said. "However, we must balance those rights to (ensure) that they do not impede upon the rights of others or allow for violations of the law."As the downtown encampment remained set up in recent days despite clean-up orders, city officials deemed it a public nuisance."We'd received complaints from the (concourse) facility staff regarding human and animal feces, urination, drug use, littering and damage to city property," Long said.The police personnel who showed up at the civic center en masse Friday morning gave the demonstrators ample opportunity to remove their things, and most of the campers complied, according to the assistant chief."Officers then began moving slowly across the plaza, providing an exit for those wishing to leave," he said.Long discounted reports that police had stepped on or walked over a tent while demonstrators slept inside."That is not true, to my knowledge," he said. "The chief, I and other members of the command staff were watching the entire event. Those officers were slow; they were methodical."Mayor Jerry Sanders praised the police department's handling of the volatile situation."I thought our officers did an excellent job," he said while attending a late-morning San Diego Association of Governments board meeting downtown.Regarding the timing of the sweep, the mayor said Lansdowne appeared to have chosen the dead of night as "the least confrontational time.""We don't care if (the demonstrators) go anywhere," he said. "They have a legitimate right to protest wherever they want. They just have to follow the guidelines."Noting that the squatters had been asked dozens of times, in a non-confrontational manner, to remove their shelters and other trappings from the plaza, Sanders said the lingering assembly had raised safety concerns as well as potential sanitary problems."They shouldn't have been shocked that this happened," he said.Occupy San Diego members can return to the concourse any time to express their free-speech rights as long as they do not set up camp again, Long said.Shortly after daybreak, workers began giving the courtyard a thorough cleaning as a group of protesters stood behind a row of police officers at the nearby corner of Third Avenue and B Street. Watching the crew spray down the pavement with high-powered hoses, one of the ousted dissidents yelled, "Thank you for washing my house!"By mid-afternoon, about 30 demonstrators had returned to the plaza and were milling around next to the Civic Theatre, with roughly the same number of police officers posted nearby.Protesters first converged on the site Oct. 7 to take their assorted stands against purported misdeeds of banks, corporations and politicians. The movement began in New York last month and has since spread nationwide.The local rally has been largely free of confrontation, with the major exceptions being this morning's sweep and an Oct. 14 scuffle during which officers pepper-sprayed about a half-dozen protesters and arrested two of them while clearing camping gear from the public space next to City Hall.In defiance of city officials' orders to keep the concourse clear of shelters, sleeping bags and other large personal items, demonstrators began erecting tents there again earlier this week.Participants in the ongoing social-justice rally have vowed to remain in the downtown area until their demands -- including meaningful action addressing joblessness, poverty and political corruption -- are met or at least seriously considered.

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Marching to the River on the Tree of Liberty

Dog Poet Transmitting…….

May your noses always be cold and wet.

I’m not going to edit this. I need some down time.

When the corporation police shot the veteran in Oakland, I saw my Fort Sumter moment. When I said they let the barbarians through the gates, I was talking about all the soldiers coming back from the neo-con wars. The use of the word ‘barbarian’ is a metaphor, or an analogy, because they are not barbarians, they are we. The not so few, the brave and the awakening dread of the American Marching Band but they are more the universal soldier, double twisted into what they didn’t want to run into. Sooner or later the off duty cops are going to be buying drinks at the American Legion.

The Vodaphone union is going down one street and running into The OWS at the other and it is all coming back on the bankers. It is all coming back on the money men who fuel BP – Monsanto, Rio Tinto and United Fruit. Can I get a witness! We have the address. We have the mass rage, let’s pop the ramparts and hit the main stage. Move over congress or you can bend over a Page on the rail at the gallery watching and listening.

We got welfare mothers and unknown lovers who made them that way because they had the back streets for their bedsheets   and now they’re on two feet coming up on Wall Street. Can you hear me. Can you hear me. We are marching. Marching revolution. We are moving. Move on over moveon.org we’ll see you in the rubbish seats when they tan the leather for the seating chairs of the new world order.

Can I get a witness!!!

They went to Oakland the high rise brokeland with an open hand and the cannistered the marine. It was a drop shot from a corporate cop. Is that all you got. Is that all you got.

We gonna take the Washington monument away from the government and stick it in the Martha Washington monument a five trillion deep penetration hole of Halloween debt made up by vampires and werewolves who ripped it and… sucked at it and we have the evidence. We have the evidence. We have the evidence. Yes we do.

We are a marching band of everyone at hand across the global land where Zioniza put its kosher flaming brand on all the cattle on the land and they make it with the dead sea salt children. They make it with the dead sea salt. Baby it ain’t your fault. Just blame it on the Palestinians. Blame the Palestinian people of the book. You thinking god is dead wake up you sleepy head . We are marching and god is you cause we are god

We are the real police. We are the people. We are the real police. We are the people. Better run and hide, Mr. .Noahide because I’ve seen your eyes and they are lying. They are lying. All aboard the Armageddon train. No we are not insane. We are marching.

We are marching to the hill where they pour swag and swill as pigs delight in doing don’t they? We will not call you that but it’s pretty much where it’s at and I suppose you are about to start explaining how come you work for them when you signed on for me is that a breach of contract or a faulty decree. What I see is mercenary downing to the very last penny. You say you haven’t got any well then we will search you. We will feel you up and down and turn you all around cause you’re in Bangkok. Their kind of Bangkok because they are banging with their cocks on your prosperity

All kinds of dimes are trolling the seine on the river to nowhere and the levees are rising. It ain’t Spain. The wind is sealing the Katrina revealing under the abutments of the Madrid Line and they are not having a fine time with the Monte Chirsto getaway on the long gone hoping for a change is gonna come when you bet on the come when you bet on the come when you bet on the come

They say terrorists don’t have money but nobody does the sick frottage better than the ones who throw you in the blender and sooner or later they will hang from their suspenders and love lies bleeding in the alley with your pension an did I mention! Are you in suspension? Then I guess it adds another demonention to the queen of England turning off the lights on Downing streets rent boy party favors for the city boys who are working on both sides of the street. They do it sideways no time off Sundays they get two Tuesdays to show their relief.

Behind the backdoors, what are you in for it is always closure and closer to the place where they dispel belief. I think you’re gourgis in your distress. I know that you distress me honey. Do I get a camel to ride?

It’s like lightning and I hear it thundering like a new born princess in a place to believe. I have your attention? Change your connection. You still have the time and the sisters ride free.

We are marching! Oh no  we’ re dancing We are marching with the river to the tree of liberty. 

Has Capitalism Ever Existed in America?

Or has it always been a fascist country?

J.G. Vibes
Activist Post

Recently there has been a lot of discussion about capitalism in the news and among activists. Many people are taking stances on either one side of the issue or the other, but very few are stopping to consider the fact that capitalism may have never even existed. This concept may come as a surprise to some, but it shouldn’t. If you examine most of the words used to describe our society such as democracy, freedom, representative or capitalism, you will find that these words are simply abstract euphemisms which are used to disguise the true nature of authoritarian civilization.

We are supposed to believe that we are represented by people who don’t represent us, that we are somehow “free” in a situation where we are constantly being exploited and ordered around. Much in the same way that we are told we are “free” in our personal lives, we are also told that we are “free” in our financial lives. The word “democracy” is used to make our oppressive political system seem more benevolent and legitimate, while the term “capitalism” is used to give the impression that we operate under a “free market” economy. Obviously, neither are true.

Capitalism itself has been defined many different ways, but the rights to private property, as well as private production of goods and a free market economy, cross over between all of these definitions. Currently none of the above rights are being fully respected in the United States and most Western countries that claim to be capitalist. Sure, at face value it may seem like these ideas are prevalent in Western culture, but when you take a look at property taxes, government subsidies for big corporations and the mountain of red tape faced by entrepreneurs it should become painfully obvious that capitalism has probably never existed in this country; perhaps it has never even existed in this world.

The system that we have in place today could more accurately be called fascism, mercantilism or cartelism. These words describe a system where the elite use their power in government to control the rest of society, as well as prop up their businesses by eliminating competition through the political system. The monolithic corporations that now exist would have never been able to grow into what they are today without the help of government intervention and protection. Without government intervention, the infamous lobbyists in Washington would become obsolete because there would no longer be any ability to manipulate the marketplace through bribes or coercion. Government intervention and protection is the primary means by which the world’s biggest corporations have devastated their competition and developed massive monopolies.

In a system of true free market capitalism there would be absolutely no need for a government, because any “service” that is apparently provided by the government can actually be better handled by entrepreneurs. In today’s system we don’t have independent businesses working on a level playing field, instead we are left with a few massive corporations and cartels that use their power in government to maintain their monopolies and stomp out their competition. This is the very definition of fascism -- the merger of state and corporate power -- this is the dominant economic system in the world, and has been for centuries, in various different forms.

In fascist countries there is really no line between government and big corporations; both types of organizations use legislative power to establish and maintain monopolies. When it comes down to it, both of these organizations rely on violence and threats of violence as a means of getting their way in the marketplace. Essentially, the government is an organization that is used to justify violence, from the military to the tax collectors to the police. This constant use of force is said to be keeping us safe, but in reality it just instigates further conflict and makes our lives more chaotic and violent.

For any authoritarian government to stay in power they must convince their subjects that they are providing them with safety and security. This is the typical public relations scheme of every oppressive government; the idea that they are providing worthwhile services. This is sadly a myth. The government doesn’t provide services; they monopolize services. In other words, they make sure that they are the only organization that can provide schools, hospitals, roads and other utilities to the public because this creates a situation where the people are completely dependent upon the state for survival. This doesn’t mean that a government is the only type of organization that is capable of providing these services. In fact, community groups and entrepreneurs would most likely do a far better job at providing these services because they would actually be judged by the integrity of their work, unlike politicians and corporations.

Oftentimes when the government is providing a service they are actually doing a very poor job, but no one can really tell the difference because there is no competition to judge it by. If you look at the goals that government organizations apparently set out to achieve, you will see they always fail miserably. Therefore, if the government is claiming to provide maximum safety and security, it would be safe to assume that this goal will not be achieved. In the most authoritarian countries where the “leaders” claim to have established an extreme level of security, things are actually very unsafe and citizens in these kinds of countries live in constant fear. Just because there is a very high level of control does not mean that there will be adequate safety or order within a society. The most controlling type of government in today’s world is without a doubt a fascist one.

Fascism is defined as an authoritarian system of government that has strong nationalist and corporatist values. Fascist governments often have strong military cultures and use force to establish themselves as authority figures, both at home and abroad. A Fascist government never refers to themselves as such; to do so would be to admit that they run unjust and oppressive regimes. Fascism exists in many economic systems that claim to be capitalist or communist and can develop even in countries that call themselves democratic.

In fact, most fascist “leaders” tell their people that they live in a free and democratic society so the public takes their grievances to the polls, instead of taking them into the streets where they could actually make an impact. Currently one of the most fascist nations on Earth is called the “Democratic Republic of North Korea”. Likewise, the government in America and the European Union are some of the most fascist regimes in history, yet they still claim to operate under systems of “capitalism” or “democratic socialism”. Like anything else in politics and economics, it’s a word game that’s designed to disguise the truth.

Personally I believe that the economic system of the future that will finally bring us peace, freedom and opportunity has yet to be discovered. However, there are some basics of capitalism and voluntarism that should be considered necessary if we are going to establish a new economic system that is designed to empower the people. The rights to private property, the freedom for people to open businesses and trade freely amongst themselves are elements of capitalism that will ensure freedom in a future economic system. The idea that all interactions in society should be voluntary and free from threats, coercion and violence will ensure peace. These are some good places to start our discussion, but to establish a system that will actually work in our best interest, we, the 99% need to hit the books and put our heads together.

Today, almost every economy in the world is totally dictated by the ideas of two long-dead aristocrats. Karl Marx on one end representing communism, and Adam Smith on the other end representing capitalism. Our whole way of doing business on this planet has changed very little since the time that these two characters were alive, and that right there is the root of our problem. Imagine if a few people in every city across the world wrote their own economic manifestos and got together to respectfully discuss their ideas. We refuse to accept yesterday’s television shows, IPods and PlayStations but without thinking we have accepted ways of living that are centuries old. It’s time for us to work together in creating strategies where everyone can meet their needs without violating the rights of others. 

J.G Vibes is an activist and artist who has been studying occult history, theology and government for most of his life.  In 2007 he began hosting electronic dance music events and establishing Good Vibes Promotions as a respected name in the counter culture.  It wasn’t until 2008 that he began to fuse his philosophic ideas with his events, this was around the same time that he began writing and putting together the plan for his book Alchemy of the Modern Renaissance.  Since then he has established a record label and a website that hosts a wide variety of activist information that is frequently updated.  www.goodvibespromo.com (facebook page updated more frequently).

Cameron slams fat cat bosses as it is revealed they have awarded themselves a massive 49 per cent pay hike

City firms to pay out £4.2billion this year in bonuses

Shell making £4.4billion in three months as oil prices soar

Average earnings has now hit £2.7million

David Cameron has slammed Britain's top bosses for awarding themselves a massive 49 per cent pay rise in the last year.
Business chiefs at the UK’s top 100 companies can now expect to take home an average £2.7million as households suffer the biggest squeeze on incomes since the 1920s, according to new figures.
The massive salaries are 113 times the national average of £24,000 for a worker in the private sector, where salaries have risen just three per cent in the last year.

Anger: David Cameron, in Perth, Australia today for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, considers the news about fat cat pay from the UK

Speaking from the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Perth, Australia, the Prime Minister said: 'There needs to be responsibility. Boards have got to think when they are making pay awards, is this the responsible thing to do?
'We need all these figures published and known so that we can compare and contrast, so shareholders know what they are paying for.
'We need accountability to strengthen the hands of shareholders so that they feel they are taking responsibility for remuneration in the boardroom.
'This is a concerning report, particularly at a time when household budgets are very tight and people have difficult circumstances.'

Enlarge  

The City of London: Fat cat bosses and bankers can expect bumper bonuses despite the rest of Britain feeling the squeeze

He called for 'transparency, accountability, responsibility' in boardroom pay, urging that all awards must be justifiable.
'Everyone, whether they are in public life, whether they are in private enterprise, they all need to be able to justify the decisions they make about pay,' he added.
The extravagant pay packages enjoyed by every member of the boardroom, from the chief executive down to far less high-profile roles, were revealed in research by Incomes Data Services (IDS).

In fact according to the report, chief executives and finance directors – usually considered the number two at a firm – did not do as well as more junior staff.

The average chief executive saw their total payout increase by 43.5 per cent to £3,855,172, while the rise for a finance director was up 34.1 per cent to £2,001,515.
Other directors enjoyed the largest rise, as they took home 66.5 per cent more in pay and perks, to the tune of £2,260,033 on average.

Backlash: The Occupy London protest continues in the square at St Paul's Cathedral, with many very angry about capitalist Britain

The bonus element of the average executive pay packet increased by 23 per cent, from £737,624 in 2010 to £906,044.
Former Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman Lord Oakeshott said: ‘These greedy bosses sit on each others’ remuneration committees and wave through each others’ offensive pay rises.
An average rise of 49 per cent includes vast rewards for failure while employees, shareholders and customers suffer.

Fury: Lord Oakeshott says a minority are getting 'vast rewards for failure while employees, shareholders and customers suffer'

‘Many FTSE bosses then have the brass neck to whine about paying 50 per cent tax.
'It’s high time they showed leadership and restraint.’
The revelation on corporate pay comes as Shell reported bumper profits of £4.4billion in just three months, after reaping the benefit of the high oil prices hitting motorists at the petrol pumps.
In a further insult to struggling families, a separate survey revealed City firms will pay out £4.2billion this year in bonuses alone.
The sum, revealed by City think tank the Centre for Economics and Business Research will be handed out despite pledges by successive governments to crack down on the culture of corporate excess.
Meanwhile, ordinary households are an average of £15 a week worse off than a year ago, thanks to spiralling bills and pay squeezes.
Earlier this week the governor of the Bank of England Mervyn King said workers in Britain had been hit by the biggest fall in living standards ‘in living memory’.

TOP EARNING BOSSES

Mick Davis, above left (Xstrata)	£18,426,105
Bart Becht, above right (Reckitt Benkiser)	£17,879,000
Michael Spencer (ICAP)	£13,419,619
Sir Terry Leahy (Tesco)	£12,038,303
Tom Albanese (Rio Tinto)	£11,623,162
Sir Martin Sorrell (WPP Group)	£8,949,985
Todd Kozel (Gulf Keystone Petroleum)	£8,913,223
Don Robert (Experian)	£8,601,984
Edward Bonham Carter (Jupiter Fund Management)	£8,003,641
Dame Marjorie Scardino (Pearson)	£8,003,641

The Income Data Services report on fat cat pay used information from the latest available published accounts of FTSE100 companies, for the financial year ending between February 2010 and April 2011.
Author Steve Tatton said the companies would find it hard to explain why executives were being so handsomely rewarded while their employees struggle to get by.
‘The pay gap between the boardroom and the shop floor does not yet show any signs of closing,’ he said.
Brendan Barber, general secretary of the TUC, added that the boardroom increases amounted to a ‘brazen stitch-up’.
He said: ‘With the FTSE 100 down on last year and most staff getting pay rises of less than two per cent, these bumper settlements prove that CEO pay bears no resemblance to performance or economic reality.’
One of the key factors behind the inflation squeeze on household finances has been the high price of oil, which has been above $100 per barrel all year.

But high fuel costs – exacerbated by the unrest in the Middle East – spelled good news for Shell.
The oil giant made £4.4billion in the third quarter of the year, the equivalent of around £48million per day.
Petrol prices are up almost 18 per cent since last September, according to data collected by Asda, adding to the pressure on incomes.
The £4.2billion bonus pool shared out in London’s financial district is actually 38 per cent down on the previous year and a long way below the £11.6billion paid out in 2007/08, just before the credit crunch ravaged the global economy.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2054424/Cameron-slams-fat-cat-bosses-revealed-awarded-massive-49-cent-pay-hike.html#ixzz1cBVgXJcN

Max Keiser: Debt slash = debt hike, collapse guaranteed!

http://revolutionarypolitics.tv/video/viewVideo.php?video_id=16473

Furious Greeks lampoon German 'overlords' as Nazis with picture of Merkel dressed as an SS guard

Street poster depicts German Chancellor wearing a swastika armband bearing the EU stars logo on the outside

Greeks angry at the fate of the euro are comparing the German government with the Nazis who occupied the country in the Second World War.
Newspaper cartoons have presented modern-day German officials dressed in Nazi uniform, and a street poster depicts Chancellor Angela Merkel dressed as an officer in Hitler’s regime accompanied with the words: ‘Public nuisance.’
She wears a swastika armband bearing the EU stars logo on the outside.

Attack: A street poster in Greece has depicted Angela Merkel in a Nazi uniform with a swastika surrounded by the EU stars. The accompanying words describe her as a 'public nuisance'

The backlash has been provoked by Germany’s role in driving through painful measures to stop Greece’s debt crisis from spiralling out of control.

Greeks are furious at the deal, even though it means the banks will write off 50 per cent of the country’s debt and Socialist prime minister George Papandreou said Greece had ‘avoided a mortal national danger’.
Opposition parties blasted the landmark agreement, with conservatives warning it condemned the country to ‘nine more years of collapse and poverty’.
But it is the fury of ordinary Greeks which is raising eyebrows.
Greek government officials who agreed to the belt-tightening moves have been portrayed in cartoons giving the Nazi ‘Sieg Heil’ salute.
And German visitors flocking to ancient tourist sites are being met with a hostile welcome from some Greeks.
Berlin’s interference has revived historical enmities and evoked comparisons to the massive destruction of Greece at the hands of Hitler’s Germany more than 65 years ago.
Cartoons have sprung up depicting the European Union’s ‘troika’ as ferocious soldiers in Second World War uniforms.

Satirical: Cartoons appearing in Greek newspapers have drawn comparisons with the Nazis

Greek finance minister Evangelos Venizelos is a regular target in the liberal daily Eleftherotypia and is often shown in cartoons making a Nazi salute.
One shows a German soldier watching over Venizelos as he barks at a Greek citizen to pay more taxes.
In another cartoon, a young Greek answers a German soldier asking why there were no names on a list of Greece’s newly formed labour reserve, saying: ‘They are empty as you exterminated the Communists, the Jews, the homosexuals, the gipsies and the crazies last time.’

Greek protesters call president "traitor", halt parade

(Reuters) - Greeks protesting at austerity measures demanded by foreign lenders blocked a major national parade on Friday to commemorate Greek resistance in World War Two, shouting "traitors" at President Karolos Papoulias and other officials.
The protest in Thessaloniki was echoed at smaller parades across Greece, including in Athens where marchers held black ribbons. It showed the extent of anger at the higher taxes and wage cuts sought by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund in return for funds to avert a debt default.
The annual military parade in the northern city is one of the most symbolic events in Greece's political calendar and commemorates the rejection of Italy's ultimatum to surrender in 1940. It was the first time it had been canceled.
"The Greek people are now fighting a major battle. They also fought one many years ago today ... We must unite to overcome this crisis," Papoulias said, adding that he had fought the Germans as a 15-year-old boy. "So who is a traitor? They should be ashamed!"
"I came to honor this historic city. There are some who want to prevent this celebration. I am very sorry," said Papoulias, 82, appealing to Greeks to stand together in the face of the country's economic plight.
The austerity measures demanded under an EU/IMF rescue of Greece have helped push its economy into its worst recession in four decades, driving unemployment to record levels above 16 percent. Many Greeks accuse Prime Minister George Papandreou of sacrificing their wellbeing to foreign lenders.
Incidents marred parades and celebrations in towns and cities throughout Greece, held to commemorate the day when Prime Minister Ioannis Metaxas rejected a demand from Italian dictator Benito Mussolini to allow deployment of his troops in Greece. The national holiday known as Ohi Day, or "No Day", in Greek.
BAND STOPS
Despite a deal clinched on Thursday at an EU summit to cancel half the value of Greece's 200 billion euro debt in the hands of private bondholders, many Greeks are deeply resentful of what they see as foreign meddling in their affairs, reviving memories of the wartime Nazi occupation.
EU paymaster Germany, which has been vocal in demanding economic and fiscal reforms in return for its financial support, has become a target for demonstrators' derision.
"1940-2011: No to the Fourth Reich" read one poster in a demonstration in Cretan city of Heraklion, where protesters took to the streets during a parade.
Horst Reichenbach, head of EU taskforce in Greece, said he understood the sensitivity of national sovereignty but said his group was created at Papandreou's request to help implement reforms decided by the Greek government, not to decide policy.
"We want to help Greece in its effort to overcome this painful economic crisis," he told Ta Nea newspaper.
Credit agency Fitch Ratings said doubts over Greece's willingness to implement structural reforms and its weak growth prospects restricted the ability of this week's deal to transform the country's prospects.
In Athens, students paraded before officials with raised fists holding black ribbons as a sign of dissent at the austerity measures. The municipal band marched with ribbons tied to its instruments and stopped playing when it reached the podium where Education Minister Anna Diamantopoulou stood.
Some small groups of protesters scuffled with police and also shouted "thieves" and "traitors" at officials, but there was no repeat of the rioting during last week's 48-hour general strike to protest at austerity measures.
The leader of Greece's conservative main opposition party, New Democracy, blamed the government's policies for sparking social unrest but he condemned the marring of a day of national celebration.
"Those who are glad to have ruined our national holiday must know they have injured our national pride. They have insulted the memory of our heroes," Antonis Samaras said in a statement. "They should not confuse our national symbols and our history with a catastrophic government."

Mets Ruling Would Give Madoff Family $82 Million, Trustee Says

Bernard L. Madoff’s family would keep about $82 million of “other investors’ money” under a ruling that limited a bankruptcy trustee to claiming from the owners of the New York Mets only two years of withdrawals from the Ponzi scheme, according to a court filing.
The confidence man’s family took out $141 million in the six years before Madoff’s firm went bankrupt in 2008, of which less than $59 million was taken in the two years before the bankruptcy, trustee Irving Picard said in a filing. Many other investors are trying to hang onto “stolen” money from fictitious trading that belongs to customers who took losses in the fraud, he said.
Picard wrote about the Madoff family in court papers filed after U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff told him to explain why another investor, James Greiff, shouldn’t keep money he says he took “in good faith” from the Ponzi scheme. Rakoff’s Madoff caseload includes Picard’s suits against the Mets owners and Greiff.
The trustee’s argument “is good for two reasons,” said Nancy Rapoport, a bankruptcy-law professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, in an e-mail. “It puts the amount of money at risk front-and-center, and it explains how easy it would be for people to hide behind fake securities transactions to circumvent bankruptcy law.”

Attempted Suicide

Ruth Madoff, the con man’s wife, told CBS News she and Bernard were so distraught by his crimes that they attempted suicide together by taking the sedative Ambien, according to CBS. Their son Mark killed himself last year.
Rakoff, in his order to Picard, said, “These arguments implicate the questions about how to integrate the securities and bankruptcy laws.” Under securities law, some withdrawals from a brokerage may be protected from clawbacks, he has said.
Arguing that securities trades shouldn’t be protected from clawbacks, Picard cited his case against Peter Madoff, the con man’s brother. It exemplifies the “outrageous securities transactions” that feature in cases he has brought to reclaim fictitious profits, he said.
“Peter Madoff maintained at least two BLMIS accounts, for which he invested $32,146 -- including a grand total of only $14 after December 1995 -- yet he redeemed $16,252,004,” Picard said.
Charles Spada, a lawyer for Peter Madoff, didn’t immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comment on Picard’s remarks.

‘Purported Gain’

In one account, Peter Madoff generated a “purported gain” of almost $9 million based on a fictitious trade in Microsoft Corp. stock “despite having no money or securities invested,” Picard said. Madoff family members were “insiders” of the Madoff firm who held key positions, he has said.
If Rakoff’s two-year ruling applied to J. Ezra Merkin, described by Picard as “a sophisticated investment manager who was a close business and social associate of Madoff,” he would keep around $180 million of the more than $500 million the trustee is trying to claw back.
In an amended complaint filed in 2009, Picard said Merkin and his funds took $495 million out of the Madoff firm in the six years before its collapse, of which $314 million was withdrawn in the last two years.
A district judge reviewing Picard’s suit to claw back $34 million from Merkin’s bankrupt funds, Kimba Wood, affirmed his theories.

‘Innocent Investor’

Picard told Rakoff that Greiff had incorrectly accused him of being inequitable.
“Hiding behind the veil of ‘innocent investor,’ Greiff aims to keep money he now knows was stolen from other customers,” Picard told the judge.
“This is a public disgrace,” Helen Chaitman, a lawyer for Greiff, said in an e-mail. “Picard owes a fiduciary duty to Mr. Greiff under the Securities Investor Protection Act. Yet, he attacks an innocent victim.”
The case is Picard v. Greiff, 11-cv-03775, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

James Dines - Government’s Theft Forcing Violent End

With gold and silver on the move along with stocks, today King World News interviewed legendary James Dines, author of The Dines Letter.  Over five years ago James Dines said to me in an interview that before this cycle ends all fiat currencies would go to worthlessness.  This was an amazing call on his part because within months of that interview we began to see competitive currency devaluations erupt.  When asked about the collapsing purchasing power of currencies, Dines stated, “It started with Japan.  They pushed the Yen down against the US dollar so they could compete more aggressively.  I said this would be a game of competing currency devaluations because other countries say if we make our currency less valuable that means we can sell more stuff overseas.”

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James Dines continues:

“So other countries began doing it and finally America began doing it.  President Nixon let the dollar float, the dollar plunged and suddenly America became competitive.  The whole world is doing it now.  What I previously labeled the currency devaluations is now in its final stages. 

Everybody has interest rates as low as they can.  Japan has been buying up a lot of dollars and if the dollar crashes they are in really big trouble.  So it’s a mess.  

Currencies are the lifeblood of the system.  If the currency is corrupt then everything that currency touches is also corrupt.  That’s what’s really bothering the world and this is why you are getting all of these riots in different places.  It’s all part of the same phenomenon, it’s the currency.  They don’t get that it’s one organic whole, one organic expression of the currency being embezzled by printing too much money.

One of the functions of money is storing value in it.  Once you save money you have capital and that capital must be represented honestly.  If they print ten percent more money overnight, they have literally stolen ten percent of your capital.  It’s that stealing in the currencies that is eviscerating the world right now.

Twenty years ago in America, one bread winner could support a family.... 

“Now it takes two or more and they still can’t do it.  That’s because the money, the governments are stealing it.  This cannot end well.

All of these paper currencies have no intrinsic value and they are only as good as the government says they are.  The currencies are like a bunch of staggering drunks, arm-linked and when one falls it's going to drag down the whole bunch.  

This happened in the 1920s in Germany.  They ran out of gold and had to run the printing presses and wound up with a hyperinflation.  That is one of the worst calamities to befall any country.  We are at risk now of seeing that happen again.  You need to figure out how to survive and how to protect yourself (in that environment).

The result of all of this is that gold is going up.  Gold is the one way you can really tell what is happening because gold has no counterparty risk.  The government can’t control it, they can’t print it, they can’t create it.  The only thing they can do is steal it and sometimes the governments even steal the gold from the populace.

Every time gold has a pullback or a correction, they say, ‘Well it’s over, it’s a bubble.  It’s useless.’  Gold is not useless.  It forces (over time) budgets to be balanced or else there is a penalty. 

During this recent drop gold went down from nearly $2,000 an ounce to about $1,600 an ounce and they said, ‘Well, it’s a crash, it’s over.’  No, it’s just a violent correction and you are going to get more of these as we move higher and the coming currency devaluations that I’ve been warning about for years finally expresses itself. 

What happens will depend on whether governments try to print more or whether they come to their senses and either repudiate the dollar and come out with a new currency backed by gold.  You need to prepare for it and you need not to be concerned about these pullbacks in gold because there is only so much of it in the world.

The people who own it (gold) own the ultimate money and they don’t have to depend on anybody else.”

This is a wide-ranging interview with one of the great ones you don’t want to miss.  The KWN audio interview with James Dines is available now and you can listen to it by CLICKING HERE. 

© 2011 by King World News®. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.  However, linking directly to the blog page is permitted and encouraged.

Obama calls for 'firewall' to contain eurozone crisis

100 billion euro bailout for Greece agreed on
© AFP/DPA Marc Tirl

AFP

LONDON (AFP) - US President Barack Obama wants Europe to create a "firewall" as part of its plans to contain the eurozone debt crisis, he said in a Financial Times newspaper article published on Friday.

"This week, our European allies made important progress on a strategy to restore confidence in European financial markets, laying a critical foundation on which to build," Obama wrote in the business daily.

"Given the scope of the challenge and the threat to the global economy, it is important for all of us that this strategy be implemented successfully -- including building a credible firewall that prevents the crisis from spreading, strengthening European banks, charting a sustainable path for Greece and tackling the structural issues at the heart of the current crisis."

At Wednesday's Brussels summit, EU leaders cut a crucial deal in a concerted attempt to resolve the eurozone debt crisis, prevent contagion in the likes of Italy and Spain, and avoid another painful global recession.

The leaders agreed a three-pronged strategy: avoiding a Greek default, backstopping other countries struggling with debt and improving the war chests of at-risk banks.

It includes quadrupling the firepower of the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), the eurozone's emergency rescue fund, to one trillion euros ($1.4 trillion) and a new 100 billion euro bailout for Greece.

Banks will take a 50 percent loss on their holdings of Greek debt to lessen Athens' burden, and seek to strengthen their capital by a collective 100 billion euros.

© AFP -- Published at Activist Post with license

US energy secretary to face grilling over failed firm

US Energy Secretary Steven Chu
© AFP/Getty Images/File Chip Somodevilla

AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US Energy Secretary Steven Chu will testify to a key congressional committee November 17 about a half billion-dollar loan to now bankrupt solar panel firm Solyndra, the panel announced.

President Barack Obama's Republican foes have been hunting for evidence that politics at the White House improperly shaped the US Energy Department's decision to provide Solyndra with a $535-million loan guarantee.

The White House has denied acting inappropriately.

The chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, Republican Cliff Stearns, announced that Chu would testify before his panel and signalled that the official would face a grilling.

"We hope he will finally provide answers about why DOE consciously ignored the direct warnings from their own experts that Solyndra was doomed to fail, and granted the loan to Solyndra," Stearns said in a statement.

Stearns also accused Chu and his department of illegally restructuring Solyndra's loan at a time when the failed firm "was fresh out of cash."

"Dr Chu's testimony is an important piece of the overall Solyndra puzzle as we seek answers on why taxpayers are now on the hook for a half billion dollars," the lawmaker added.

Critics of the administration say that the firm, once hailed as a shining example of Obama's push to create green jobs in a new energy economy, was instead an symbol of unwise federal handouts.

California-based Solyndra has now filed for bankruptcy, closed its doors and laid off 1,000 workers, leaving taxpayers on the hook for the loan.

© AFP -- Published at Activist Post with license

The Judge:wiith Nigel Farage on the Greek Revolution

http://revolutionarypolitics.tv/video/viewVideo.php?video_id=16471

"Occupy" demonstrators rally around injured vet

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More than 1,000 people attended candlelight vigil for Scott Olsen Ghursday in Oakland (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

(CBS/AP) 
OAKLAND, Calif. -- At least 1,000 people gathered in Oakland in honor of the Iraq war veteran who was seriously injured in a confrontation between police and anti-Wall Street demonstrators.
Many in the crowd held candles during last night's vigil for 24-year-old Scott Olsen, who's in the hospital with a fractured skull. His condition has been upgraded to fair.
Olsen was hurt Tuesday night as police in riot gear met protesters who were trying to return to the area near Oakland's City Hall where they had been camping out.
Fellow veterans say Olsen was struck in the head by a projectile fired by police, but that hasn't been confirmed. Officials are investigating exactly where the projectile came from.
The Marine veteran, who won medals in Iraq, has become a rallying cry for the Occupy Wall Street demonstrators across the country.
Complete Coverage: Occupy Wall Street
Protesters also held a vigil in Las Vegas that drew a handful of police officers.
Afterward, protesters invited the officers for a potluck dinner. "We renewed our vow of nonviolence," organizer Sebring Frehner said.
Elsewhere across the United States, officials took steps to close some of the protest camps that have sprung up in opposition to growing economic inequality.
Authorities in Tennessee made about 30 arrests early Friday at the site where a few dozen Wall Street protesters had been encamped for about three weeks in Nashville, protesters said.
Authorities began moving in a little after 3 a.m. using a newly enacted state policy that set a curfew for the grounds near the state Capitol, including Legislative Plaza where the protesters had been staying in tents.
The state's new rules specifically ban "overnight occupancy" at the public space and require permits and use fees for rallies.
Katy Savage, one of the protesters, said she peeked out of her tent around 3 a.m. saw that the camp was surrounded by state troopers.
"I was grabbing our stuff to try to get it off the area," she said.
Savage said people who had already decided they would get arrested sat down together and began singing "We Shall Overcome" as troopers dragged some of them to waiting buses.
About 20 protesters, who remained on a sidewalk, were not arrested and were still there later in the morning.
Asked about the arrests, Savage said she was "disgusted and disappointed."
"This was a group of brilliant, wonderful people that I had come to know as family, practicing democratic decision-making on public space. And for that they were dragged away in handcuffs," Savage said.
Even as the vigil was held in Oakland, protest organizers prepared to defy Oakland's prohibition on overnight camping at a plaza near City Hall.
Shake Anderson, an organizer with Occupy Oakland, said half a dozen tents were erected on the plaza Thursday evening where police armed with tear gas and bean bag rounds disbanded a 15-day-old encampment Tuesday. More tents, food and supplies arrived during the meeting and vigil for Scott Olsen, with about 25 tents erected late Thursday.
"We believe in what we're doing," Anderson said. "No one is afraid. If anything, we're going to show there's strength in numbers."
Few police were seen in the area during late Thursday night, though Oakland Mayor Jean Quan issued a statement asking protesters not to camp at the plaza.
In the statement, she also "apologized for the outcome of Tuesday night's demonstration, in which a heavy police presence kept protesters out of the plaza with tear gas, smoke grenades and rubber bullets," reports CBS station KPIX-TV in San Francisco.
"It was not what anyone hoped for, ultimately it was my responsibility, and I apologize for what happened," the statement read.
She said city officials have started an investigation into the use of force by police Tuesday night.
Protesters at San Francisco's Justin Herman Plaza braced for a police raid early Thursday that never came. Still, police have warned the protesters that they could be arrested on a variety of sanitation or illegal camping violations.
Officials told protesters in Providence, R.I., that they were violating multiple city laws by camping overnight at a park.
Anti-Wall Street protesters camped out in downtown Los Angeles said they're planning to continue their demonstration indefinitely, although both they and the mayor's office were eyeing alternate sites.
Meanwhile, Olsen has been improving. Doctors transferred him from the emergency room to an intensive care unit and upgrading his condition to fair.
Dr. Alden Harken, chief surgeon at Alameda County Medical Center, said Olsen was still unable to speak but had improved dramatically since he was hospitalized unconscious with a fractured skull and bruised brain that caused seizures.
By Thursday afternoon, Harken said, Olsen was interacting with his parents, who flew in from Wisconsin in the morning, doing math equations and otherwise showing signs of "high-level cognitive functioning." The doctor said he may require surgery, but that's unlikely.

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Occupy Oakland: Mayor Jean Quan in Big Trouble After Riot

Occupy Oakland explodes (photo by The Black Hour)! If there’s any gauge of the saying “The Whole World’s Watching!” It’s Google Trends, which, again, has Oakland, California among the top two for something negative: the last time was for the Oscar Grant Riots.
Only the Oakland Raiders have enjoyed trend ranks, and for good news related to the football business – trading for Carson Palmer.
Occupy Oakland is now forever marked by a decision that could cost Oakland Mayor Jean Quan her job. Calling for the use of 500 police officers in a pre-dawn raid Tuesday morning, followed by more tear gas bombs Tuesday night, has thousands of Oaklanders upset with Quan.
A mayoral recall effort led by long-time Oaklander Gene Hazzard, which already picked up steam before Occupy Oakland, gaining more than the requisite number of signatures to be “on,” is was talk around Downtown Oakland as the police action against Occupy Oakland resumed last night.
While Occupy Oakland could have made better efforts to negotiate with the Mayor, this is not only not Mayor Quan’s finest moment, by stark contrast to Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums during the Oscar Grant riots, she’s no where to be seen. Jean didn’t even show up to a press conference set last night; Oakland Councilmembers Larry Reid and Ignacio De La Fuente represented Oakland.
As I talked with Ignacio for a video coming later today, Occupy Oakland has placed liberals against liberals. Sanjiv Handa, also in a video coming later today, said it best: “This (the Occupy Oakland people) is Jean’s constituency: single mothers with kids, teachers, educators, all out there..”
And Jean’s arranged for them, veterans too, to be gassed and shot in the face with rubber bullets:
Handa reports that the Mayor and Councilmembers received “thousands of calls in protest of the police action.”
As Don Macleay (Oakland Mayor’s Race Green Party Candidate in 2010) wrote in a letter that deserves its’ own blog post:

I stuck my neck out in person, in public and on line telling the protestors to engage, to accept dialog, to back away from any confrontation and to carry ourselves with dignity out of respect for our fellow citizens and out of respect for the righteousness of our cause.
It seems that the same message was needed inside our city government this week. No wonder that they never returned calls. And in the end, the police wracked more violence in a couple hours, destroyed more property and hurt more people that Occupy Oakland did in two weeks. Keep in mind, there was no riot, no emergency, no move made by the protestors other than to refuse to leave. It was the city of Oakland and the police that initiated the violence and chose its time.
Many things could have been done instead, especially since there was no urgent problem.
For one they could have given our offer to act as a go between a try. No calls returned.
How was that any different from the folk at the General Assembly refusing to speak with the city?

All I can says is unless a better way is developed, and soon, Occupy Oakland, Occupy Wall Street, and Occupy Atlanta, and all the Occupies in America could result in the destruction of (or perhaps the transformation of) the liberal base in this country.
It’s hard to vote for politicians that gas and shoot your friends.
Stay tuned.

Pernicious Attempt To Brand Protest as Anti-Semitic

GOP Tries To Raise Campaign Bucks by Tarring Occupy Wall Street

Is the Jewish congressional representative from heavily Jewish Long Island, Steve Israel, “standing with those calling for the killing of Jews”? Does the Jewish representative from heavily Jewish Florida, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, “agree with various calls for Jews to be ‘run out of the country’ and to oppose and ‘destroy’ the State of Israel”?
Sean Spicer, who holds the title of communications director of the Republican National Committee, apparently thinks these are reasonable questions. Or perhaps he merely thinks that some Jews are sufficiently stupid to think that they might be. But most likely, he thinks that if he can tar the protesters at Occupy Wall Street with the taint of these anti-Semitic statements, and condemn certain Democrats as guilty by association, he can gin up contributions to the Republican Party as he simultaneously weakens Jews’ instinctive identification with the Democratic Party.
Spicer is joined in this effort by something called the Emergency Committee for Israel, a group co-founded by neoconservative William Kristol, conservative Christian agitator Gary Bauer and Rachel Abrams, wife of disgraced neoconservative politico Elliott Abrams (convicted of lying to Congress during the Reagan administration), daughter of neoconservative activist Midge Decter and stepdaughter of Decter’s husband, former Commentary editor Norman Podhoretz. They have produced and distributed a video that asks, “What is happening at the Occupy Wall Street protests?” only to cut to a gentleman who is holding a “Hitler’s Bankers” sign and can be seen screaming, “Jews control Wall Street.” This is followed by a shot of a nasty kid shouting at a Jewish man, “You’re a bum, Jew,” with another protester explaining that “the small ethnic Jewish population in this country, they have a firm grip on America’s media.
Interestingly, none of the above comments pertains to any Israeli emergencies, but let’s leave that aside for the moment. Clearly, conservatives both in and outside the Republican Party believe they see an opportunity to score political points with Jews by pretending that the Occupy Wall Street protests are shot through with anti-Semitism.
This is obviously false, and one suspects that the Jews are not so thick as to fail to notice it. When neoconservative (and former managing editor of the Forward) Ira Stoll took a stroll through the march after attending Occupy Simchat Torah services across the street with a yarmulke on, he was greeted by nothing but friendly responses. I enjoyed much the same experience after my family and I attended an extremely moving Occupy Kol Nidre service. In order to try to tar OWS as his comrades had, Stoll was forced to turn completely to the conditional tense, as in, “If the Occupy Wall Street movement does turn against the Jews…” it would resemble, in his opinion, America’s civil rights movement, the anti-war movement and perhaps even the Bolshevik Revolution. (I swear I am not making this up: “In the Soviet example, there were communists with Jewish backgrounds, but they eventually turned violently on the Jews in the Soviet Union,” Stoll writes on his blog, Future of Capitalism. “Here in New York, there are Jews both among the bankers and among the protesters against the bankers….”)
That the anti-Semitism charge against OWS is errant nonsense is evidenced by the fact that not even Abraham Foxman and his organization, the Anti-Defamation League, will sign on. Evidencing again the intellectual confusion that lies at the center of this misguided effort, Commentary’s Matthew Ackerman is worried that the movement is too Jewish. Rarely, he wrote, “has a movement so radical in its aims been tied so explicitly to a religious tradition….” And I suppose this, too, will somehow provide aid and comfort to the anti-Semites.
Conservatives, whether neo or otherwise, obviously believe they have cleverly seized a political opportunity with their neo-McCarthyite tactics, tactics that served them well when they sought to smear the opposition to George W. Bush’s disastrous war in Iraq with the insistence that its opponents were somehow responsible for the views of every nutty organization that joined its protest marches. Given OWS’s purposefully inchoate organizational structure — to say nothing of the heavy participation of proud and committed Jews — this latest effort takes on some of the absurdity of a Monty Python sketch. The fact that a few anti-Semites have congregated among the protesters is no more significant than the fact that they also tend to congregate in Times Square or Grand Central Station, often operating on orders from space aliens who send them messages through the fillings in their teeth. Should Jewish Democrats condemn them, as well? You can find anti-Semitism in a lot of places: on Fox News, in National Review, at Mel Gibson’s house. And conservatives seem to get on pretty well with those folk. The question to ask about anti-Semitism is not whether it exists, but whether its existence has any significant political or cultural implications.
Regarding OWS, much less the Democratic Party, the crazies with the silly signs are easily ignorable. Despite the worries of those like Stoll, this movement is not going to turn on Jews any more than it is going to storm the Tsar’s Winter Palace. But the recklessness of these conservative agitators to agitate against an obviously nonexistent threat can only backfire. It’s not that I worry that genuine anti-Semites will be let off the hook; I don’t think anti-Semitism has any significant following in the United States or enjoys any cache whatsoever, save in certain swamps where all forms of prejudice and xenophobia — like, for instance, Michele Bachmann/Rick Perry-style “birtherism” — also thrive. Rather the problem is that these Jews give gentiles the impression that everything has to be about them. The vast majority of Americans support the goals of OWS, according to all recent polling. The problems of “the 99% ”are clearly occupying the minds of millions of Americans, even if these people chose not to occupy Wall Street or their local bank plaza. If conservatives insist that these groups should be shunned because they can pick out a few possibly anti-Semitic crazies in the group, then wouldn’t it be fair for the rest of America to conclude that these people are willing to put their own narrow political agenda ahead of the good of the entire country?
And would they be entirely wrong?
Eric Alterman is a CUNY distinguished professor of English and journalism at Brooklyn College and at the City of New York’s Graduate School of Journalism. He also writes a column for The Nation.

Read more: http://forward.com/articles/144942/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Weekly%2520%252B%2520Daily&utm_campaign=Weekly_Newsletter_Friday%25202011-10-29#ixzz1cA404NoQ

Boehner: No More Defense Cuts

WASHINGTON (AP) — Top congressional Republicans, Democrats and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta are united in a single message to the special bipartisan committee looking for ways to cut the deficit: Leave military spending alone.
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, told reporters Thursday that the Pentagon budget was cut more than enough in the debt accord this past summer by President Barack Obama and Republicans.
That deal calls for cuts of $350 billion in projected spending over 10 years. The Pentagon is planning on reductions of about $450 billion.
"I would argue that they've taken more than their fair share of the hits," Boehner said.
His comments echo the argument made by others lawmakers as well as Panetta, who in recent speeches and congressional testimony insisted that the Pentagon be spared further cuts.
Rising deficits and deep debt have forced the federal government to slash spending, even at the Pentagon.
The Department of Defense's budget has nearly doubled to $700 billion in the 10 years since the Sept. 11 attacks. Those numbers do not include the trillion-plus spent on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The 12-member supercommittee has a mandate to come up with at least $1.2 trillion in overall spending cuts over 10 years. If it fails to do so by Nov. 23 or if Congress rejects its plan, then automatic, across-the-board cuts of $1.2 trillion kick in, with half coming from defense.
Panetta has called that the "doomsday mechanism" and lawmakers have warned of the dire consequences of such reductions that would mean about $1 trillion over 10 years.
In a speech Thursday, Rep. Adam Smith of Washington state, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said simply insisting on no more cuts is insufficient. He said lawmakers not only need to offer alternatives to the supercommittee, including raising revenue, but also be open to other options.
Otherwise, "defense is going to be crucified," he said.
Speaking to the American Enterprise Institute, Smith said, "If we don't step up and confront the problem with either revenue or spending outside the defense budget, give the supercommittee somewhere to go, give people who want to control the deficit, including our bond raters, somewhere to go, inevitably defense is going to be crushed."
© Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Read more on Newsmax.com: Boehner: No More Defense Cuts
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Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young - Ohio (Studio Version)

Buffalo Springfield - For What Its Worth (good sound quality!)