Joshua Holland: Six Ways the Rich are Waging a Class War Against American People!

There hasn't been an organized, explicitly class-based violence in this country for generations, so what, exactly does "class warfare" really mean? Is it just an empty political catch-phrase? The American Right has decided that returning the tax paid by the wealthiest Americans from what it was during the Bush years, which incidentally featured the slowest job growth under any president in our history, at 0.45 percent per year, to what they forked over during the Clinton years, when job growth averaged 1.6 percent per year, is the epitome of class warfare. Sure, it would leave top earners with a tax rate 10 percentage points below what they were paying after Ronald Reagan's tax cuts, but that's the conservative definition of "eating the rich" these days. I recently offered a less Orwellian definition, arguing that real class warfare is when those who have already achieved a good deal of prosperity pull the ladder up behind them by attacking the very things that once allowed working people to move up and join the ranks of the middle class. But there is another way of looking at class war: Habitually vilifying the unfortunate, claiming that their plight is a manifestation of some personal flaw or cultural deficiency. Conservatives wage this form of class warfare virtually every day, consigning millions of people who are down on their luck to some subhuman underclass.

J.A. Myerson: Inside the Wall Street Protests. Police Crackdown!

Deep in the belly of the beast,among the financial district's skyscrapers, next to derivative traders in business suits and Rolex watches, you will find a one-block large democratic society, governed by concensus, whose features include free food, free professional childcare, an arts and culture area, medical and legal teams, a media center, constant music, a library and a stand with refresh --ments for the many police stationed to supervise the area. This is the one-week-old occupation of Wall Street, located at Liberty Plaza Park. A group of protestors from the camp ventured outside the park and marched on Union Square Saturday morning, and around 100 of them were arrested. Police sprayed peaceful protesters in the face with pepper spray, threw them on the ground, and assaulted them with elbows, dragged a woman around by the hair, jumped over barricades to grab and rough up people, and when all was said and done, laughed to themselves triumphantly. This is exactly the sort of violence and brutality American authorities routinely condemn when perpetrated against non-violent civilians demonstrating for democracy in Middle Eastern dictatorships, even as they employ horrifying cruelty right here.

Michael Snyder: Poverty in America!

America is getting poorer: The US government has just released a bunch of new statistics about poverty in America, and once again this year the news is NOT good! According to a special report from the US Census Bureau, 46.2 million Americans are now living in poverty. The number of those living poverty in America has grown by 2.6 million in just the last 12 months, and that is the largest increase that we have ever seen since the US government began calculating poverty figures back in 1959. Not only that, median household income has also fallen once again. In case you are keeping track, that makes three years in a row. According to the US Census Bureau, median household income in the United States dropped 2.3% in 2010, after accounting for inflation. Overall, median household income in the United States has declined by a total of 6.8% once you account for inflation since December 2007. So should we be excited that our incomes are going down, and that a record number of Americans slipped into poverty last year? Should we be thrilled that the economic pie is shrinking, and that our debt levels are exploding? All of those who claimed that the US economy was recovering, and that everything was just fine, like Lucy Ricardo, have some "splainin" to do!

Janet McGurty and David Sheppard: Chevron Confirms Gulf of Mexico Oil Leak!

A leak from a shallow water crude oil pipeline in the Main Pass Area of the Gulf of Mexico has led Chevron to shut down its offshore Louisiana Main Pass pipeline network, the company said on Tuesday. Chevron has shut its Cypress line. About 15,ooo barrels per day of crude oil production was shut, due to the pipeline leak, though it will resume partial production within 24 hours. Chevron did not reply to several requests for additional information about the leak and its operations in the Main Pass Area. Carol Fagot, a spokeswoman at the Federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE), said the agency was "aware of the report and looking into it," without offering further details. Both the US Coast Guard and the Louisiana Oil Spill Coordinator's Office said they had not been informed of a leak off the coast. Chevron has two offshore platforms in the Main Pass 299 block, according to the company's website. The site is located in shallow waters about 40 miles east of Venice, Louisiana, and has produced heavy oil, natural gas and sulfur, according to government records. Chevron said the leak was from a 10-inch riser pipeline in Main Pass Block 299. Riser pipelines normally carry crude from the seabed to production platforms.

Stephen Lendman: Israel Resuming Peace Process Hypocrisy

On September 20, London Guardian writer Chris McGreal headlined, "Palestinian statehood: plan emerges to avoid UN showdown," saying: "Washington-led international efforts to forestall a showdown in the UN Security Council over the declaration of a Palestinian state are solidifying around a plan for Abbas to submit a request for recognition but put on hold while a new round of peace talks is launched." The plan also calls for establishing a timeline for creating a Palestinian state. In addition, it'll let Abbas go home, saying he got something, even with nothing to show for it. "However, diplomats warned that a number of issues remain unresolved, including a Palestinian demand that any deal includes halting settlement construction. On September 22, Netanyahu again refused, saying: "I did something that no previous government did. I actually froze any construction for ten months, waited nine month and one week, then Palestinians came and said, well, keep on freezing." In fact, construction never stopped. Israel's land grab continued. In many West Bank settlements, building proceeded apace. Dozens of construction sites remained active. Moreover, Netanyahu declared a moratorium, not a freeze. Peace Now.org assessed what went on eight months into it. It found construction ongoing for 600 more housing units in 60 settlements, and at least 492 others announced in direct violation of Netanyahu's pledge.

Yahoo News: China paper warns US against Palestinian UN Veto!

A Chinese state-run newspaper on Friday warned of a spike in tensions in the Middle East, if the United States vetoed the Palestinian bid for membership of the United Nations next week. As peace talks with Israel stall, Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas is expected to formally submit a request for UN membership next Friday, despite strong objections from Washington that the move would be "counter-productive". "If the US chooses to fly in the face of world opinion and block the Palestine UN bid next week, not only will Israel become more isolated, but tensions in the region will be heightened even more," said the China Daily. "The majority of the international community deems an independent state as the inalienable right of the Palestinians," the English-language daily said in an editorial, echoing Beijing's official position on the issue. The planned request by the Palestinians for UN membership comes almost a year after direct peace talks with Israel ran aground due to a dispute over Israel's construction of settlements on occupied Palestinian land. But the US has threatened to veto the move if it is made within the UN Security Council, saying it would harm prospects for peace talks and that a Palestinian state can only result from negotiations with Israel. Israel is also opposed to the move, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he too will address the UN next Friday to set out his country's objections. Envoys from the United States and the European Union are currently holding talks with Palestinian and Israeli leaders in an effort to get them back into direct peace talks.

Mantiq al-Tayr: Mahmoud Abbas Caves In: Recognizes the US as a JEWISH State!

In a major breakthrough engineered by the great man of change and hope, and who has blocked access to all documents that tell us anything about him, Israeli Vice President for American Affairs (IVPAA), Barrack Hussein Obama, the Israeli Vice President for Palestinian Affairs, Mahmoud Abbas, has made a major compromise. In a press conference in Herzeliyya, Abbas has offered Netanyahu a huge concession. Both the House and Senate in the US are ready to vote on it as soon as Netanyahu gives the go ahead, the bill having been drafted by AIPAC, as usual. Peace is just busting out all over. You know, Abbas may be on to something. All you investigative journalists who read this blog, and you FBI guys too, want to pay attention to whatever is going on in the East Ramapo Central School District. It's quite a tangled web, but it looks as though a bunch of Orthodox Jews, in other words, fundamentalist extremists like the ones who are staling land from Palestinians left, right and center, are pulling a West Bank on a bunch of poor blacks and Latinos. Now I know that everyone is all worried about Shari'ah law, and that we are all mourning for the boring, dull and apparently quite smart Juan Williams, who got fired from a boring, dull and apparently quite smart Juan Williams, who got fired from a boring, dull and quite smart network, so he can work full time for people who do things for which people like Julius Streicher were hanged at Nuremberg. I know you are just weeping for Juan and all that shit.