Politics As Usual
In Austerity for dummies, Digby finds Paul “Kill Medicare” Ryan attempting to redefine the word, as people have a negative reaction. Slashing budgets and throwing people out of work is something that happens in Europe, not the US. The Republicans are showing ‘thrift’, not ‘austerity’.
When Michele Norris, host of All Things Considered reported that her husband has accepted a position in the Obama re-election campaign, she said that she would step down from hosting and will report on non-political stories until after the election. I assume that opera won’t be one of those stories, because those involved with opera are not allowed to be political in any way, shape, or form, and if they are, they are fired.
At Corrente they note that some police departments do follow procedure, as taught in the police academy. Despite pressure from the governor and the mayor, neither the Albany city police, nor the New York State Police have any intention of clearing the local Occupy group from the park across from the state capitol building. Their reasons are right out of the manual, the basic one being keeping the peace.
6 comments
Thrift? I’ll give Paul Ryan thort thrift…
It was clear that the police in Albany had their heads in the real world. THat couldn’t be said for the politicos… Did Cuomo want a riot?
Of course Cuomo wants a riot, Jams. That would give him an excuse to do what he wants to do, which is to shove the crimes of Wall Street right under the rug again and concentrate on the crimes of those complaining about Wall Street’s crimes. Duh.
– Badtux the Crony Capitalist Scryin’ Penguin
Steve, Ryan is the Newt of the 21st century … 😉
Jams, the capitol area police departments are looking at their reduced budgets and know damn well they can’t afford to get involved in this mess, even if it wasn’t such a stupid idea in the first place.
Absolutely, Badtux, Cuomo the younger is a shill for the 1%.
Especially since Russian tactics will work just as well on the OWS protesters in the Northeast as they worked on Napoleon’s invading force. Do you *really* think protesters will be out there on the streets in -5F weather during a blizzard? The only *smart* strategy here if you’re one of our overlords with a police force at your disposal is “retreat, and wait for winter.” But nobody ever accused our cold-blooded lizard overlords from planet Sociopath of being smart — just of being venal.
The only people who really benefit from the attacks are the demonstrators, as it makes the demonstration impossible to ignore. The blocking of the media in Oakland makes it something the media will now cover, because they got stepped on.
The Albany police have been digging themselves out of a public relations hole that goes back decades, so they aren’t going to throw their progress away to please the politicians. It is impossible to police a city that hates you, as Oakland is finding out.
Boredom and bad weather are much better ways of dealing with crowds that force. From a budget standpoint, and I had to deal with the budget when I was in law enforcement, arresting people is expensive and time-consuming, so you don’t do it unless you have to. The overtime involved in maintaining patrols while officers go to court and sit around waiting to testify is a killer. Those election-year vice sweeps are absurdly expensive, and I stopped them by making them a separate budget line with the cost documented. Politicians don’t like it when they have to vote on items like that, and taxpayers sure as hell don’t.
NYC, Oakland, and the other ‘get tough’ jurisdictions’ better have a source to fund all the costs of this stupidity, because the issue will come up at election time, and the police chief in Albany just knocked the props out from under them.