Different Day, Same Shit.

Some blogs and quite a few news sites try to shape and mold the news they blog/report on to fit their own agendas. Case in point is the following from one of those blogs that doesn't think highly of liberals, Obama or any combination of the two. The following is what they got from the Chicago Sun-Times:

It was the middle of the lunch rush Saturday, and Mike Winston was working in the kitchen of his Tinley Park restaurant, the Ashford House, when a waitress screamed a fight had broken out in the dining room.

Police call the melee at the restaurant a targeted assault by a mob that Winston said wielded metal batons and hammers. Ten diners were hurt in the attack, and three of those were hospitalized.

Tinley Park police had five suspected assailants in custody, and Winston said 18 young men, all wearing hooded jackets and obscuring their faces with scarves and other coverings, stormed into the restaurant.

“They came running in the door single file,” said Winston, who owns Ashford House, 7959 W. 159th St., and the adjacent Winston’s Market.

Winston, and police, said the men knew who their targets were, and that the attack wasn’t a random act of violence. Winston said the mob “targeted” a group of 20 diners, all of whom were from out of state.

“Once they attacked the table, they went and started hitting random people,” Winston said.

At this point, it looks as though a dozen-and-a-half masked punks stormed in and just started mollywopping innocent patrons for no reason. It's no wonder the blog in question picked this story up and just ran with it, straight to the end zone:

Anti-racists: Beating presumed fascists in the head with hammers, one swing at a time.

Score.

But something's missing. As it turns out, the Sun-Times included an update to the story, something the blog in question nor the commentators enjoying their daily recommended allowance of red meat didn't notice or cared to not notice:

A law enforcement source Sunday said the group beaten at a Tinley Park restaurant Saturday was made up of white supremacists, and those who assaulted them were protesters attacking their beliefs.

According to a May 3 post on whitenewsnow.com, someone with Williams’ email wrote that the “May Meet for White Nationalists and Families” would be on May 19 and 20 and that the purpose would be “economic networking,” “Work for Whites,” “Family Assistence (sic)” and “Real Time Activism.”

As it turned out, the restaurant became a temporary den of White Supremacist iniquity. Not that it justified beating dozens of patrons with hammers and bats. The group behind the incident posted a statement outlining their rationale for beating these people senseless:

On Saturday, May 19th a group of 30 anti-fascists descended upon Ashford House restaurant in the Chicago suburb of Tinley Park where the 5th annual White Nationalist Economic Summit and Illinois White Nationalist Meet-and-Greet was taking place. The White Nationalists were targeted inside the restaurant and physically attacked, causing several injuries and completely shutting down their meeting. The anti-fascist group was privy to anonymous inside information. This fascist event had been in secret planning for six months. The attendees have attempted to cover up the true intent of the event with mainstream media reports initially reporting the white nationalist conference as a wedding party and then as an Irish heritage meeting. The event was advertised on www.stormfront.org, an established white nationalist fascist internet forum.

Attempts to verify that info via that particular seedy den of online White Supremacist iniquity were unsuccessful. According to the New York Observer:

A message thread at Stormfront.org dating back to April matches Anti-Racist Action’s statements regarding the date and nature of the meeting. User “Sgathaich” posted about the event on April 3 and added, “If you are a business owner/self employed bring your info. All ideas are welcome. White’s working for White’s [sic]. White’s supporting White’s [sic]. We are taking back what is ours.”

"Taking back what is ours." Funny how these people can't seem to coexist with anyone who looks or thinks the slightest different from them. Racial distribution is a zero-sum game to these folks.

But this post isn't about a group of idiots clashing with another group of idiots. It's about how some sources tend to pick and choose what to broadcast and what to hold back, in order to generate the maximum amount of outrage and mouth-foam. It's not just penny-ante blogs that commit these acts -- established media does this in grand fashion and the GOP is currently the reigning champion of the art. For example, witness the GOP fete Mitt Romney for "creating" 100,000 jobs while ignoring the vast amounts of "creative destruction" left behind by his firm.

I won't even touch on the subliminals: dangerous "anti-racists" beating peaceful "pro-white" patrons during an event that draws plenty of socialist protesters and other "wrong-thinking" individuals and groups. Still, beating the living shit out of them is not the way to handle these groups. Confrontation and ridicule works much better and without the added benefit of making these people "martyrs" or "heroes" to their fellow idiots.

Anyone who's kept an eye on the Occupy Wall Street protests may have noticed something a bit odd about most, if not all of the rallies. Or maybe not. With this "something," plenty of people wouldn't be able to notice it. Or a lack thereof.

Yep. A lack of black people.

And this is where most whites moan, groan and think to themselves "oh, THAT AGAIN? You people are never satisfied."

BooMan from Booman Tribune does it up in decent fashion, but I want to approach the issue from a slightly different angle:

1) There seems to be this unspoken obligation for blacks to join up with the OWS movement, if only to even out the whole "middle-class white people with iPhones" visual problem.

2) One of the biggest complaints I've heard regarding OWS was how whites steadfastly disregarded police brutality until they and theirs experienced it. That's part and parcel with most problems black Americans face -- their problems are not worth investigating until ordinary whites are affected by it, too.

3) Remember the "middle-class white people with iPhones" visual problem? When working class black and white Americans see those people at OWS rallies, they see a bunch of people who apparently have the leisure time and financial support to spend their time at a political rally. Meanwhile, working class families of all stripes have to deal with minimum-wage jobs that don't afford them that sort of leisure time or the financial support. And obviously, single mothers can't justify dropping the kids off at a sitter just for an OWS rally or even joining in a rally on break if one is nearby.

4) The police brutality. This is something black Americans have to put up with on a daily basis. They're not going to voluntarily put up with it unless there is something tangible for them that they will directly benefit from. This is not the Civil Rights Movement, no matter how hard OWS supporters try to frame it in that manner.

5) This "sudden" discovery of police brutality by ordinary white Americans. Plenty of black Americans have spoken out about it, yet they were largely not taken seriously until it started happening to OWS protesters. It's something that pisses some of us off.

The biggest failure of the OWS movement in regards to ethnic relations was the organizers not going out of their way to frame it as being all-inclusive to all ethnic backgrounds. Instead, it ended up framing itself as a bunch of middle-class white people holding iPhones while conducting mic checks. And conservatives are more than happy to exploit this with a bit of that ol' "divide and conquer" class division.

And how. Michael Moore picked up a rumor from Rick Ellis' article at Examiner.com (which is a rather sophisticated content mill that prides itself on "local sourced" news -- uh oh...). That rumor happened to be how the Department of Homeland Security had coordinated a massive crackdown of Occupy Wall Street protests across the nation with a number of federal and municipal law enforcement agencies. Breathing life to that rumor was word from Oakland Mayor Jean Quan on how she was on a conference call with other city leaders to put an end to the protests.

As it turned out, that report was all hat and no cattle. Joshua Holland explained how such brainstorming among city leaders wasn't uncommon and that there was no real pressure from any federal agency, let alone from DHS, to bring the Occupy Wall Street protests to a close. The Examiner.com story came courtesy of anonymous sources. These days, anyone can make up a story and attribute it to an "anonymous source" for credibility's sake. This AP story confirms everything except DHS involvement.

Somehow, Naomi Wolf wasn't inclined to believe that the DHS wouldn't have anything to do with the crackdowns, and instead penned her own op-ed, complete with a sensationalist bent designed to tug on the heartstrings of any reader. The main problem? She picked up the already debunked DHS involvement and ran with it, presumably to juice up the op-ed. And here's one of the many problems with this op-ed:

In other words, for the DHS to be on a call with mayors, the logic of its chain of command and accountability implies that congressional overseers, with the blessing of the White House, told the DHS to authorise mayors to order their police forces – pumped up with millions of dollars of hardware and training from the DHS – to make war on peaceful citizens.

Yet there is no concrete proof that DHS was involved. But if one were to repeat the above line long enough, eventually you'll have the masses repeating it themselves, thereby making an otherwise erroneous statement truth to some and gospel for others. And that's exactly what we need less of -- a fallacy masquerading as truth.

Karoli from "odd time signatures" broke his/her foot into Wolf's literary ass over this issue:

There you have it. Bullshit, spread worldwide, with the full cooperation of so-called journalists. It’ll work, too, because she has enough name recognition that people won’t question her claims.

That's a pretty big problem these days. People with name cred who choose to abuse said cred by peddling bullshit to those who refuse to question their "trusted sources." Sound familiar to you?

And this is where I break away from everyone else who posted their own articles over this issue. I get the sense that maintaining journalistic integrity here is far more important than doing something to address the rampant abuses inflicted on protesters by police at OWS rallies. Perhaps that's not entirely true, but that's the vibe I get when I read a lot of these pieces.

We've spent enough time filleting a journalist hack who was caught fishing for more name cred with a juicy, yet rank piece of literary bait. Meanwhile, there's another OWS protester getting hit in the face with America's favorite condiment.

Chancellor Katehi, your students aren't very happy with you. Not with the way you've handled things recently. Not with stuff like this happening.



Allowing the authorities to do these things to your own students with nary a word in opposition? As the Field Negro would say, that's "House Negro" behavior. From The Second Alarm:

A few commenters and people on Twitter have asked why the chancellor is at the center of this firestorm over the police pepper spraying. Chancellor Katehi approved of the police action (though specifics of what she ordered exactly are still a mystery), and ordered the UC Davis cops to evict the protesters, resulting in the heinous pepper spraying video now plastered everywhere on the web. She has not apologized to the students or worked to remedy the situation — for instance, one student who was pepper sprayed told me she still has health problems after the incident, and no one from the administration contacted her to see if she’s okay. Katehi’s refusal to condemn the police action has only made a bad situation worse.

The dead silence (minus the reporters) speaks volumes. That's a hell of a way to send a message.

This is Dorli Rainey, an 84-year-old participant in the Occupy Seattle protests. A couple of nights ago, she was hit in the face with pepper spray deployed by police. Pepper spray burns. Like hell. Now imagine your grandmother or great-grandmother being hit in the face with this stuff. This picture was taken after she was doused with a milky substance that's supposed to counteract the effects of the spray.*

But that's part and parcel for police departments that have responded to largely peaceful gatherings and protests with intentionally violent crowd control and suppression tactics that are designed to goad protesters into responding with like violence, finally giving law enforcement officials the official pretext to effect even more heavy-handed detainment procedures.

So this is what police departments all over the country do when they want to "restore order" and clear out OWS sites. They bean war veterans in the head with tear canisters and spray elderly women in the face with pepper spray. But the cops don't deserve all the blame -- they had their orders from higher up, after all.

*I expect crude "money shot" jokes from less-cultured conservatives, trolls and other assorted assholes. But since this is DDSS, where trolls are a genuinely endangered species constantly bordering on extinction, these comments may happen elsewhere, but not here.

Dominic: We're under siege here. The whole city's gone mad.
Finch: That's exactly what he wants. Chaos. The problem is that he knows us better than we know ourselves. That's why I went to Larkhill last night.
Dominic: That's outside quarantine.
Finch: I had to see it. There wasn't much left. But when I was there it was strange – I suddenly had this feeling that everything was connected. It was like I could see the whole thing; one long chain of events that stretched back to before Larkhill. I felt like I could see everything that had happened, and everything that was going to happen. It was like a perfect pattern laid out in front of me and I realized that we were all part of it, and all trapped by it.
Dominic: So do you know what's gonna happen?
Finch: No. It was a feeling. But I can guess. With so much chaos, someone will do something stupid. And when they do, things will turn nasty. And then, Sutler will be forced do the only thing he knows how to do. At which point, all V needs to do is keep his word. And then...

An Iraq war veteran has a fractured skull and brain swelling after allegedly being hit by a police projectile.

Scott Olsen is in a "critical condition" in Highland hospital in Oakland, a hospital spokesman confirmed.

Olsen, 24, suffered the head injury during protests in Oakland on Tuesday evening. More than 15 people were arrested after a crowd gathered to demonstrate against the police operation to clear two Occupy Oakland camps in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

It's been something I've been waiting on since Occupy Wall Street started. I've been waiting for the police to do something so jawdroppingly stupid that it would cause all hell to break loose.

Given the previous animosity between locals and the police force, and the police department's own added zeal in "restoring order," Occupy Oakland could easily slip from being a protest to a full-on riot, one that the mainstream media most likely hope would discredit the entire movement, something that portraying the protesters as slackers, hippies, losers and sexual deviants couldn't do.

Military members, those who have risked their lives in the defense of this country, are held in high regard by many. Having them injured or killed by people who are looked at as abusive, power-hungry bullies and servants of corrupt government and corporate American interests? There's no telling what would happen.

I'd hate to even think of what would have happened if this Marine had died. As it stands, he's in "fair" condition in ICU. One report states he's suffered loss of speech due to the sustained injuries and brain swelling.


As I said before, I can't help but wonder if the Powers That Be™ are hoping for a riot or two to break out at one of these Occupy protests. It'll give them all the pretext they need to really crack skulls en masse, while the mainstream media sighs collectively in relief and go back to investigating Paris Hilton's shopping patterns or something else that's completely inane and self-centered.