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Re: Palestine and Israel. I am extraordinarily supportive of and grateful to you for your leadership in most areas, but this is one where I see you continuing America's disconnect with reality. Even most Jews worldwide do not support Israel's occupation of Palestinian land. It's fine that you don't believe Palestinian recognition by The UN would help the peace process. I disagree, and so does most of the world. Israel will never negotiate in good faith with a non-state. Maybe they will with a fully recognized one. Regardless, we shouldn't have vetoed something like this, which honestly does not affect our National Security in any way, unless maybe to enhance it if we offer some support to the Palestinian people's dream. And now, when The UN is recognizing Palestine in the only way it can, through its agencies, we are going to cut funding to UNESCO? UNESCO which funds women's education in Afghanistan and Tsunami Early Warning systems? To Punish Palestine??? This makes no sense. Mr. President, you are far more intelligent than this.

just responded as Representative Proud's surrogate to my earlier post, if anyone is interested.

my last entry has been expanded to include another exchange between myself and Representative Terri Proud.

A brief Piece on Occupy Tucson's experience in court. At the end, District 26 Republican Terri Proud dismisses the protesters and tells them to go home. She urges police to clear the park. This prompted this exchange of emails between me and her:

To: Terri Proud
Subject: Occupy Tucson.

You don't seem to get it. Our state is bankrupt, our cities are
bankrupt, and it is all for the same reason that people can't find work,
that people are being foreclosed on. It is because the banking
institutions and corporations have plundered our economy. These people
are fighting for all of us, you too, unless you are worth $40 million,
are part of the 99%. So your answer is to have the police "do whatever
it takes" to remove them? What do you want, rubber bullets and tear
gas? Is that the American way? Take a good hard look at yourself and
those who pay for your campaign. Can you in good conscience say you are
working for the best interests of the citizens of Arizona? I think the
protesters can.

Mr. Moyer,


What you don't' get is that Tucson has no control on the Federal
Institutions. It would be like me protesting to protect the cactus in
New York.

So the individuals who continue to "occupy Tucson" in the meantime are
costing those who are working hundreds of thousands of dollars. In which
I'm sure the City will be happy to once again raise the people's taxes
to pay for that bill. People who own businesses downtown are suffering,
police officers using the very limited resources they have and those who
should be protected who pay taxes to have that police protection are
being neglected.

I guess as long as the attention is on the people who want to abuse the
laws; they want to be first afforded what other taxpayers are paying
for; and they could care less about other people's small businesses,
their mortgages, and their children - is alright with you.

America's greatest freedom is the freedom to protest, but if the only
way you can make your point is by hurting the innocent ones around you,
who have nothing to do with the bank institutions, then yeah- I have a
problem with that.


Representative Terri Proud
Arizona House of Representatives
1700 W. Washington Street
Phoenix, Arizona 85007
Email: tproud@azleg.gov

Ms. Proud,

I own a business downtown, and yes, I am hurting, but not because of the demonstrators. I am hurting because of the damage that has been done to our economy by irresponsible, largely Republican policies to deregulate the banking industry and to grant personhood and unlimited monetary influence over campaigns to Corporations. The only reason the demonstrators are costing the city money is that the city council doesn't have the courage to just let them have their say. These people are hurting no-one. The ones who are hurting us are the extraordinarily wealthy who have taken almost all of our economic gains over the last three decades. they have gambled away the future of millions of people with pensions and 401K's, they have taken bailouts and turned them into multi-million dollar bonuses, they have sent jobs to China and India, and they have bought a large portion of our government, including, it seems, you. The whole country needs to side with these demonstrators, including state and municipal governments. Then, yes, we can influence the Congress.

David Scott Moyer

Would you send me a Republican bill that has deregulated banking industry as you have claimed. It's easy to repeat what others keep saying but often finding the actual truth is a bit harder when the rhetoric is an "idea" versus "actual".

Representative Terri Proud
Arizona House of Representatives


That's easy. The Glass-Steagall act was largely repealed by the Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act in 1999. This allowed banks to speculate in the market with depositors' money. Canada did not repeal similar legislation in their laws, and has not suffered the banking and mortgage crisis that we have. Only one Democrat in the Senate voted for this act. Every Republican did.
Thank you for taking the time to ask

David Scott Moyer


so knowing that people still decided to participate and you're saying it's the banks fault? I'm just wondering at what point do the people own up to their responsibility? I'm not sure but if millions cancelled their credit cards instead of sleeping in parks I believe would be a stronger point. Don't you?

I personally don't think government has the right to invest our money - that should be our decision and if we go broke because we made bad investments then so be it. But that's not something the people want because they want government to take care of them with more rules and regulations and welfare.

Representative Terri Proud
Arizona House of Representatives

Oh Really? So you believe President Bush should have let the banks collapse instead of bailing them out? We agree on that, I guess. I have never taken a handout from the government, but I, and millions like me, would prefer that our tax dollars go to infrastructure, education, and the social safety net that makes us a civilized people. We would prefer it not go to subsidizing the shipping of jobs overseas, the funding of capricious wars, and the bailing out of speculators who have destroyed our economy. Is "Not believing the government should invest our money" code for the privatization of Social Security? If so, imagine where I and millions of others who have paid into this pension plan would be after the collapse of the market cause by the banks. Responsible Capitalism includes government regulation of all industry, including banks. We are the government. Sadly, too many of us in recent years have voted for legislators like yourself, who would prefer to regress to the 1890s, with no labor laws and no environmental regulations. We are waking up. You have made it very clear that you do not serve the people of Arizona, but rather the corporate hierarchy. I hope your constituency can be made aware if this by the next election. I can see you are afraid of the people Occupying Armory park and hundreds of parks like it around the country, and you should be. The paradigm is changing and you will no longer be a part of it.

Good luck in your short political career.

David Scott Moyer

We support the goals of the Occupy Wall Street movement: we have high levels of unemployment and we have high levels of foreclosure that makes Oakland part of the 99% too. We are a progressive city and tolerant of many opinions. We may not always agree, but we all have a right to be heard.

I want to thank everyone for the peaceful demonstration at Frank Ogawa Park tonight, and thank the city employees who worked hard to clean up the plaza so that all activities can continue including Occupy Wall Street. We have decided to have a minimal police presence at the plaza for the short term and build a community effort to improve communications and dialogue with the demonstrators.

99% of our officers stayed professional during difficult and dangerous circumstances as did some of the demonstrators who dissuaded other protestors from vandalizing downtown and for helping to keep the demonstrations peaceful. For the most part, demonstrations over the past two weeks have been peaceful. We hope they continue to be so.

I want to express our deepest concern for all of those who were injured last night, and we are committed to ensuring this does not happen again. Investigations of certain incidents are underway and I will personally monitor them.

We understand and recognize the impact this event has had on the community and acknowledge what has happened. We cannot change the past, but we are committed to doing better.

Most of us are part of the 99%, and understand the spirit of the Occupy Wall Street Movement. We are committed to honoring their free speech right.

Finally, we understand the demonstrators want to meet with me and Chief Jordan. We welcome open dialogue with representatives of Occupy Wall Street members, and we are willing to meet with them as soon as possible.

Oakland Mayor Jean Quan

Thirteen Observations made by Lemony Snicket while watching Occupy Wall Street from a Discreet Distance

1. If you work hard, and become successful, it does not necessarily mean you are successful because you worked hard, just as if you are tall with long hair it doesn’t mean you would be a midget if you were bald.

2. Fortune is a word for having a lot of money and for having a lot of luck, but that does not mean the word has two definitions.

3. Money is like a child rarely unaccompanied. When it disappears, look to those who were supposed to be keeping an eye on it while you were at the grocery store. You might also look for someone who has a lot of extra children sitting around, with long, suspicious explanations for how they got there.

4. People who say money doesn’t matter are like people who say cake doesn’t matter it’s probably because they’ve already had a few slices.

5. There may not be a reason to share your cake. It is, after all, yours. You probably baked it yourself, in an oven of your own construction with ingredients you harvested yourself. It may be possible to keep your entire cake while explaining to any nearby hungry people just how reasonable you are.

6. Nobody wants to fall into a safety net, because it means the structure in which they’ve been living is in a state of collapse and they have no choice but to tumble downwards. However, it beats the alternative.

7. Someone feeling wronged is like someone feeling thirsty. Don’t tell them they aren’t. Sit with them and have a drink.

8. Don’t ask yourself if something is fair. Ask someone else a stranger in the street, for example.

9. People gathering in the streets feeling wronged tend to be loud, as it is difficult to make oneself heard on the other side of an impressive edifice.

10. It is not always the job of people shouting outside impressive buildings to solve problems. It is often the job of the people inside, who have paper, pens, desks, and an impressive view.

11. Historically, a story about people inside impressive buildings ignoring or even taunting people standing outside shouting at them turns out to be a story with an unhappy ending.

12. If you have a large crowd shouting outside your building, there might not be room for a safety net if you’re the one tumbling down when it collapses.

13. 99 percent is a very large percentage. For instance, easily 99 percent of people want a roof over their heads, food on their tables, and the occasional slice of cake for dessert. Surely an arrangement can be made with that niggling 1 percent who disagree.

I wish all these energetic, persistent, and idealistic young people had converged on Wall St. in 2008 when George Bush bailed out the banks, or in early 2009 when President Obama, as his first act in office signed an order to close Guantanamo, only to be stymied by Republicans and fake Democrats in Congress, or when the President tried to give us a decent and fair health care system, only to have it corrupted and twisted by those same legislators, but they didn't, they are there now.

So now what? Some of the demonstrators want to bring it all down. They want an end to Capitalism, our system of government, our political leadership globally, all of it. But what comes after that? Nobody seems to have a plan. Nobody seems to have considered the consequences of "success". Do we really want a descent into Anarchy followed by generations of struggle to try to build a society? Or do we want to take back control of the government we have?

Occupy Tucson articulated two goals after their first meeting: "1) stripping corporations of their undeserved status as "persons" and 2) making it unlawful for corporations to contribute to political campaigns."

Compared to the laundry list of complaints and demands publicized recently by the New York demonstrators, this is concise, well thought out, and actually an achievable goal. Accomplishing these two things will take care of most every other complaint the demonstrators have.

So how do we do it? Most "occupiers" will hate this, but we do it at the ballot box. To overturn Citizens United, we need one of two things, a dramatically changed Supreme Court, or a Constitutional Amendment. Both require working very very hard to put Progressive people in Congress and the Senate. There is a movement to investigate Clarence Thomas for corruption. This will go nowhere unless we put people in Congress to make it happen. Likewise any constitutional amendment won't happen without both a Progressive Congress and a majority of Progressives in State Legislatures ready to confirm it.

Stay on the street, continue to occupy, become the headline, but then translate all that energy and power to occupying Congress through the ballot box. Do not abdicate the most powerful tool you have. Please. The world is watching and counting on you.

The President Surrenders, says Krugman

It seems as if he wants Obama to be a one term president. He was one of the major players banging the drum of complaint last fall that led to the Teabagger Congress we now have. This is more of the same. He should be lambasting the Republican House for holding the country hostage. They were willing to bring down the government, the economy, and the country if they didn't get their way. What should Obama do? Declare martial law and have a purge? I don't buy Krugman's suggestion. First of all, he doesn't define his "legal end run", but the implication is the 14th amendment which was talked about a lot. That would have led to immediate impeachment hearings in the House, which would have completely paralyzed the government for the rest of Obama's term. I think he took the only way out possible. Social Security and Medicare are not touched, and the debate continues with the hostage rescued.

The paranoid fringe of the Left are in a tizzy because the headlines in their "alternative" press are saying that Obama is promising the Republicans cuts in Social Security. As usual, this is total bullshit. Obama has said changes to Social Security and Medicare are on the table. He has not said what those changes might be, nor has he said what he would demand from Republicans in order to get them. This has been the way of the squealing left wing pundits every time Obama has sat down with the Congress we stuck him with last November by not freaking voting for Liberals. Every time, he has come back with a better deal than anyone thought he could get. Too bad all the crybabies were beating down the most effective president the Left has had in 50 years for six months prior to November's elections. If instead they had been encouraging the electorate to give him a Congress that would empower him, we would be looking at a very different country right now. Instead, they suppressed the vote from the Liberal base and we got Obama vs the Teabag Nation of Rand Paul and Michele Bachmann. I fear Mother Jones and Alternet will do exactly the same thing for the next year and a half, and we will end up with a government entirely controlled by the Republican party and their masters the Koch Brothers.