So, I’m watching the video of NYPD staff officers beating on people with nightsticks, and I’m trying to figure what in hell is going on.

The ‘white shirts’ who are doing all of the assaulting are the military equivalent of field grade officers. They seem to be working in packs, actually outnumbering the regular street cops in many videos. This is not the way the world works. They are supposed to be directing things, not massing and leading the charge. Then I recalled that ‘Tony Baloney’ was in the counter-terrorism unit of NYPD.

This is just guess work, an hypothesis that would explain this strange phenomena. What if there were agent provocateurs among the crowd? Their identities would not be shared with the regular officers, but the counter-terrorism unit would know who they were. If you were planning an assault on the protestors, you wouldn’t want to beat up or Mace your own people, so the attacks are being carried out by those who can recognize them.

Given what is known about the NYPD’s ‘intelligence’ activities, having infiltrators among the protestors would be ‘standard operating procedure’.

The Local Puppy Trainer had this item this morning: Region’s congressmen sign on to RESTORE Act

Northwest Florida’s U.S. representatives were among those who announced Wednesday that they have signed on as sponsors to a House version of the RESTORE the Gulf Coast Act.

The bill, while similar to one moving through the Senate, would allow more freedom to the five Gulf Coast states affected by last year’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill to spend millions of dollars in BP fines headed their way, said Rep. Jeff Miller.

“It would give local governments more say in how and where the money is spent,” said Miller, the Republican from Chumuckla who represents Florida’s 1st congressional district. “We believe that way the money will be spent more efficiently on more appropriate projects.”

Specifically, Miller said the House bill is designed to limit the power of the federal government to dictate how the BP dollars are spent.

“It has provisions that provide more flexibility to spend the money on economic development instead of restricting it to environmental projects,” Miller said. “The biggest objection (to the Senate bill) for the House sponsors is that there’s not enough to be done to help the economy.”

So, the brain trust that represents South Fundistan doesn’t think that fines for screwing up the environment should be used for cleaning up the mess. No, it should be used for ‘economic development’.

We have a tourist economy. If the environment isn’t clean, the tourists won’t come to visit. First, clean up the mess, which will generate economic activity in the form of jobs in the local area, and if there is any left, you can cut taxes or make pay-offs to campaign contributors, or whatever worthless, ineffective plan that those contributors have ‘guaranteed will work this time’, unlike every other moronic plan they have used to siphon off public money.

If you don’t want the restrictions, don’t take the money.

Position: 29.1N 58.1W [10PM CDT 0300 UTC].
Movement: Northeast [050°] near 13 mph [20 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 90 mph [150 kph].
Wind Gusts: 115 mph [185 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 90 Miles [150 km].
Hurricane Wind Radius: 25 miles [ 35 km].
Minimum central pressure: 976 mb ↓.

Currently about 455 miles [ 735 km] East-Southeast of Bermuda.

Here’s the link for NOAA’s latest satellite images.

[For the latest information click on the storm symbol, or go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Hurricanes” for all of the posts related to storms on this site.]

Oscar Ameringer didn’t just talk about manure, he also said: “Politics is the gentle art of getting votes from the poor and campaign funds from the rich by promising to protect each from the other.”

I think that there is general agreement that ‘the rich’ are being protected while ‘the poor’ are being cheated. That is at the heart of Occupy Wall Street, and they make that quite plain in their Declaration of the Occupation of New York City. It follows the form of the Declaration of Independence, and like that document, it is a list of wrongs, crimes, against the people of the United States.

People, like the corporate media hacks, are ignoring the clear message – OWS wants the rule of law, they want the criminals punished, not bailed out. They are fed up with being punished for the crimes of the ‘1%’. They have waited patiently for almost 3 years for things to get better, and they haven’t. The ‘1%’ have been making money hand over fist, but the ‘99%’ keep slipping backwards.