This is a followup piece to my diary about the MSM noticing that on March 4, 2010 college kids all over the country were protesting the drastic tuition and fee hikes they are facing in order to try to continue their educations.

“It did get a bit disruptive”

https://www.docudharma.com/diar…

Here in CA the state is raising tuition 32%,  while cutting funding to state colleges and universities by a total of 1.4 billion dollars.  Community colleges are also facing drastic cuts in funding for classes, meaning that there ARE no classes for 200,000 students.  

 In that diary I had a bit of a time getting a short little video to embed of protesting students in Oakland, who had marched several miles then got up onto the 880 freeway, which showed a view of the freeway, shot from above and at a distance out of somebody’s apartment window, with the cars stopped in the distance and the protesters were huddled up on the exit ramp below by the police. (thanks to Edger for fixing it)  

This is breaking on the HuffPo and at FDL.  

Before you say, oh, ARC, don’t be silly-  let me tell you, I went digging around independently in the nether regions of the Facebook Heathers when he announced he was retiring, because of the Politico smear, and they are calling for digging up dirt on other Congresspeople who voted against the health care bill, so they can force them to resign, too.

Now think again, which political party and which political ideology practices deep public sexual hypocrisy, and tell me this doesn’t have a certain Chief of Staff’s little fang mark’s all over it ?

Bipartisanshipthingee, much ?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…

a staff member made an intonation to me that maybe I should be chasing after the bridesmaid and his points were clear and his words were far more colorful than that. And I grabbed the staff member sitting next to me and said, ‘Well, what I really ought to be doing is fracking you.’ And then ( I ) tossled the guy’s hair and left,

Massa also spoke about what he sees as connections between the timing of the disclosure of these sexual harassment allegations and his reluctance to vote yes on health care reform.

“Mine is now the deciding vote on the health care bill,” Massa said, “and this administration and this House leadership have said, quote-unquote, they will stop at nothing to pass this health care bill. And now they’ve gotten rid of me and it will pass. You connect the dots.”

Sounds like (colorful language deleted for hypocrites) an attempt at entrapment to me.  

Who is the staffer and has he worked for a Blue Dog ?  Does he have a consulting business on the side, like a lot of them do ?   Because if he has, it’s over.  Not for Rep. Massa, who is a cancer survivor, Navy veteran, and a stand up guy who was willing to say what needed to be said about the Iraq War and George Bush a long time before anybody else would dare to.

Mass claimed Steny Hoyer did not tell the truth about the investigation

http://news.firedoglake.com/20…

Massa also accused Steny Hoyer of lying about the investigation when he said that he told Massa’s office to file the allegations with the Ethics Committee. “Steny Hoyer has never said a single word to me at all, never, not once. Never before in the history of the House of Representatives has a sitting leader of the Democratic Party discussed allegations of House investigations publicly, before findings of fact. Ever.”  

And that he got the Rahm Treatment

Later in the show, Massa addressed events in his Navy career which a right-wing radio host blogged about, insisting they were misunderstandings. And he detailed a conversation with Rahm Emanuel after the climate change bill vote:

“When I voted against the cap and trade bill, the phone rang and it was the chief of staff to the president of the United States of America, Rahm Emanuel, and he started swearing at me in terms and words that I hadn’t heard since that crossing the line ceremony on the USS New Jersey in 1983,” Massa said. “And I gave it right back to him, in terms and words that I know are physically impossible.”

“If Rahm Emanuel wants to come after me, maybe he ought to hold himself to the same standards I’m holding myself to and he should resign,” Massa said.  

Now, you know and I know that the Senate never had any intention of passing a cap and trade bill.  This is just more Kabuki Theatre Political Loyalty Performance Testing.

The strategy for passing health care insurance bail out:  hoping Democrats in Congress who wanted universal coverage and true reform sicken and die first, and then smear their reputations afterwards-  look at all the old crap on the Kennedy’s they dug up when Ted Kennedy passed, and the smear they did on Carolyn when she thought about asking to be appointed to a Senate seat.  Look at how Martha Coakley, the world’s worst Senate candidate, wouldn’t even bother to commit to a Public Option while running in Massachusetts to replace Ted Kennedy, the ultimate, in- your – face diss of implemented social liberalism.   Social liberalism, as it’s good enough for all of our NATO allies in Afghanistan, but don’t even think about having a non predatory financial market on the medical and mortgage businesses in this country when it comes to protecting citizens who need shelter and medical care. No protection from equity fund vultures and hedge traders more interested in passing bets around on things and services of no real world value other than the top of the pyramid scheme gets the payoff.  No protection from the oil companies expecting us to run mercenaries for mid east oil producers, in perpetuity, on credit and tax cuts for the rich, or they’ll jack up the commodities market in petroleum products and the resulting high gasoline, diesel, and heating oil prices will spike up another recession on top of this one.  

Rep. Massa should fight these outrageous smear charges, and we should have his back.

If the Senate wants their bill, the Senate should PASS THE HOUSE VERSION FIRST and then make a promise they’ll do reconciliation afterwards.  If the White House wants their historic photo op, put the Public Option back in the bill and quit smearing veterans, or they can be another one term wonder of all blow and no show, looking at a Republican controlled Congress their last 2 years.

________

edited to add youtube video at 12:45 pm 3/8/10

Warning. This is Not P.C.

Did you ever read something so mind bogglingly bereft of compassion, and so full of the banality of the banana slugs, it slimed the inner surface of your computer screen as you scrolled thru it ?  

This much “advocacy” deserves a rewrite. This is the current apogee of argument for “reform.”  All I had to do was substitute a few words for other words, throughout the piece.   And this is what happens:

____________________________________________________________________________

“I’m For A Public Option. Just Not This Public Option ”

I see a ton of enthusiasm for the public flogging.  I understand it.  Emotionally, I agree. Intellectually, not so much.

A public flogging is attractive on paper, but has some serious and real pitfalls, in my view.  

I understand why people don’t want to let slaves escape on this, and also why they hate having commercial slave bearing ships, competing with their breeding operations.  But there are still some very practical, non procedural reasons to stop and think it all thru.

Is hell freezing over ?

I look at the Sacramento CrapBee this morning, and it’s got a front page color photo of a cop trying to taser a student protester.  WTF ?  Slow news day ?  You aren’t printing whitewash for the Republican Party today ?

I look at the weather, and it’s got a link to a KCRA Channel 3 video on the students protesting at UC Davis yesterday, which is taking about a year to download for me, so I may as well write this up while waiting.  

The embedding has been “disabled by request” so here’s the YouTube link and my transcript below.

http://fwix.com/sac/share/b137…

or

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…

News anchor intro: “More protests could be on tap today. Another big story not only in California but nationally. California’s struggling school systems certainly here in the spotlight.  It did get a bit disruptive. A group of UC Davis students are threatening more demonstrations after an already busy day of actions”

Reporter on the Scene, standing in the pre dawn dark on deserted street:  I just got off the phone with police, they have not had any official word that anything is planned for today, but they are still on standbye  in case something does erupt.   We’re on CA Ave right now, where you can see nobody is here but hundreds of students marched down the street yesterday  (she then describes the protests yesterday instead of having the video show it, so presumably somebody saw it other than the hundreds of student protesters )  The students made their way to the entrance ramp of I- 80 where they were met by a 100 police officers

Video finally shows cops firing pepper balls and using batons as students walk together down the street, as reporter says

“You can see it got a little violent there for awhile”

As a very small, limp blonde student is being dragged down the street by cop, voiceover continues  

“Davis students were amongst thousands across the nation standing up to cuts in public education, while others found the protests did more harm than good ”

Gets anti protest quote from somebody named Deji Aiyedojbon that just is one chopped off sentence “I mean like is this whole movement just to lower our tuition ?”  And an Andrew Koper “I think it’s a waste of money we have graffitti all over the streets.”  (ARC note:  Okay, you can run back to your parents for extra spending money now. )

Reporter: Police do have a plan if students protest again and at 2pm the UC Davis Student body association will meet to discuss how to move forward.

____________

I have had the pleasure of interacting with many students and graduates of UC Davis, which is an agricultural college which has one of, if not the best, veterinary schools and equine clinics on the West Coast.   Davis, CA, the town, also has a thriving Farmer’s Market and is just one of the nicest, most laid back places.

If you’ve lost UC Davis, you have a problem.  Go Student Protesters!  

There are 27 suspects in the January 20th murder of Hamas top military operative Mahmoud Al- Mabhouh , all of whom travelled to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on faked foreign passports.   Ironically, Mabhouh was also in the UAE on a false passport.

Two of murder suspects subsequently entered the United States, one on an Irish passport as “Evan Dennings” January 21st, and another on a British passport Feb 14th “Roy Allan Cannon.”   (Both real life persons, one British- Israeli, are currently believed to be the victims of identity fraud. )

It is not known if the alleged murderers using the passports are still in this country.  

http://online.wsj.com/article/…

There aren’t records of either man leaving the U.S., though investigators can’t be sure the two are still in the country, according to this person. Since the two were traveling with what investigators believe to be fraudulently issued passports, they may have traveled back out of the U.S. with different, bogus travel documents.

The suspected U.S. travel broadens to American shores the international manhunt triggered by Dubai’s investigation into the death of Mr. Mabhouh. Dubai police have already identified two U.S. financial companies they believe issued and distributed several credit cards used by 14 of the suspects in the alleged killing.

A U.S. State Department spokesman declined to comment.

A spokesman for Interpol, which is also investigating the murder, declined to comment.

Israeli officials have neither confirmed nor denied any involvement, a longstanding practice. Last week, Israel’s foreign minister said there was no proof implicating Israel.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/…

Twelve of the suspects used British passports, police said. Six suspects used Irish passports, four used French passports, three used Australian passports and one used a German passport.

Already the story is changing again, as a “national security source in the United States” is saying that the 2 suspects who might have entered the US after the murder, did not, even as the list of suspects went from 26 to 27, according to CNN and newsrunner.com.

http://www.newsrunner.com/disp…

The only Israeli in government who has commented so far is Tzipi Livni, the current Kadima Party opposition leader and the former foreign minister.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…

A CNN reporter, Christiane Amanpour, asked the Israeli Minister of Defense on Saturday to comment.  Ehud Barak wouldn’t comment, either.

The Chief of Police of Dubai, Dahi Khalfan, is “100% positive” that Mossad is involved.  During a Feb 28th news conference, Khalfan said that he was sure that all the suspects were now in Israel, and as long as they stayed there, they wouldn’t be arrested.   The UAE is now blocking people traveling on Israeli dual nationality passports from entering the country.

Information released yesterday says the autopsy showed Mabhouh was injected with the muscle relaxant succinylcholine, typically used in endotracheal intubation,  and then suffocated to death.  

wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S…

it is perennially popular in emergency medicine because it arguably has the fastest onset and shortest duration of action of all muscle relaxants.

Suxamethonium does not produce unconsciousness or anesthesia, and its effects may cause considerable psychological distress while simultaneously making it impossible for a patient to communicate. For these reasons, administration of the drug to a conscious patient is strongly contraindicated, except in necessary emergency situations.

The use and abuse of foreign passports and identities by the hit squad involved in the murder, has upset many countries.  

Have you all noticed how QUIET all the usual suspects have been in the past 48 hours, as if it was coordinated or something ?

Dive !  Dive !

(warning sirens waaahoooowoo  waaahooooowoo  )

Now look, I never keep anything from the crew and I don’t expect them to keep anything from me.  So come on, speak up !  

You make one move to take over this boat and I’ll see that you’re hung.

A fleet boat of the Navy, a submarine with her fighting powers still intact, and you’d take her back to Pearl ?  I don’t believe it.  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Emanuel, Pelosi Meet in Capitol To Chart Health Care Course Friday 2/26/2010   HuffPo

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…

Rahm Emanuel ventured to the Capitol Friday evening to hash out health care strategy with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), a White House aide confirmed.

Senior Hill aides speculated to HuffPost that Emanuel, the White House chief of staff, would bring the message that the House must move first, with a pledge from Senate Democrats that they would follow. It’s hard to make amendments to a law through reconciliation if that law hasn’t been made official yet, they argue.

Pelosi’s office wouldn’t confirm that the meeting, which was still ongoing as of the early evening, was taking place or comment on what Pelosi’s reaction might be. A White House aide said he was unsure what message Emanuel would deliver.  

Hoyer:  House Will Go First on Health Bill  Sunday 2/28/2010   The Hill

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Sunday that the House must pass the Senate bill before fixes to both bills can be approved.

Hoyer is the highest-ranking House Democrat to outline that path forward, which is perceived as a critical concession to Senate Democrats.

“Whether we’re willing or not, we have to go first if we are going to correct thing that the House disagrees with,” Hoyer said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

House Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller (D-Calif.) suggested that it be used last week.  

The Bill of Rights

Fourth Amendment – Protection from unreasonable search and seizure.

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

The Patriot Act was extended for another year this week.  Read this information about it from the ACLU:

http://www.aclu.org/national-s…

Late last year, to avoid expiration on December 31, 2009, Congress extended the provisions through February 28, 2010. Despite bills pending in both the House and the Senate to amend the three expiring provisions and other sections of the Patriot Act, Congress decided instead to move ahead with a straightforward reauthorization.

Since the Patriot Act’s passage in 2001, there have been several consecutive reports (including one released in January) from the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General that have outlined widespread and blatant abuse of the statute. FBI agents routinely claimed false terrorism emergencies to use “exigent letters,” or emergency letters, in order to gain private records for investigations when no emergency existed. The FBI also regularly issued NSLs after the fact in an attempt to legitimize the use of exigent letters. Even after today’s vote, there remain bills pending in both the House and Senate that were specifically introduced to narrow the scope of the NSL statute.