I've now been to five Occupations. My plans were made months ahead of time and the Occupy movement lasted long enough to meet me in a couple of east coast cities. It was there I kept on running into Iraq vets sleeping in public parks. So for Veterans Day, I wrote about these guys who signed up to serve overseas and are now fighting at home for The Atlantic:

At Occupy DC, a painting of Scott Olsen in uniform is draped on the side of a tent. He's become a symbol of the Occupation Movement -- he fought overseas only to be injured when exercising his "freedom" of peaceful assembly at home. His name has become a shorthand to talk about why so many vets are at Occupy Wall Street.

"There's a reason Scott Olsen got shot in the head," says Patterson, looking down at his chain-restaurant hot cocoa. "Because he was out front."

Patterson still sports a military haircut and a bit of the Army swagger. He also has a touch of that telling hyper-awareness war vets sometimes display; he's a little twitchy, a little intense. He tells me he has PTSD and has been self-medicating with weed. He says it helps. What's also helped is being a part of this protest movement. "This is the only peaceful solution," he says. "If this movement doesn't work, our country is not going to make it ... We're just not going to make it." Patterson became an interrogator in Iraq straight out of high school. His mother had to sign his enlistment papers. He turned 18 in Basic. "We're an industrialized nation who's a third world country. The super wealthy elite pretty much control our democratic process and everyone here is pretty much fighting for scraps and that's not right," he says.

Read the whole piece here.

One of the conservative baloney machine's greatest triumphs has been to convince a sizable portion of the country that states such as Massachusetts (which I proudly call home) are decrepit urine-soaked wastelands whose streets are overflowing with junkies and hookers living inside million-dollar public housing units that are paid for on the backs of the few hard-working Real Americans who haven't fled for the greener pastures of Rick Perry's free market paradise down South. You've probably heard quite a bit about the "Texas Miracle" in the press a lot and I'm sure you'll be surprised to know that it's a longhorn-sized pile of poop.

First, let's just consider that the unemployment rate in the free-market paradise of Texas stands at a freedom-y 8.4 percent. For contrast, the unemployment rate in my socialist hellhole of Massachusetts stands at communist-like 7.6 percent. Poverty rates are also intriguing, since 10 percent of Massachusetts residents live below the poverty line while 15.8 percent of Texas residents live below the poverty line.

But that's not all! My evil job-killing state has the lowest rate of uninsured people in the country, at 5.3 percent. Texas, on the other hand, has left a whopping 27.1 percent of its population uninsured. I'm not sure what's quite so miraculous about not having access to health care but then again I'm just a commie pinko. What the hell do I know?

And there are other things too. Like, education. In Massachusetts, 85 percent of eighth graders scored at or above basic in the National Assessment of Educational Progress math exam, while 52 percent scored at or above proficient. Texas' eighth graders scored 78 percent at basic, 36 percent at proficient. You see a similar trend for reading: 83 percent of Massachusetts eighth graders scored at basic in reading, with 43 percent at proficient. In Texas, 73 percent of eighth graders scored at basic in reading while 27 percent scored at proficient.

"OK, OK," you say. "So Massachusetts has a better economy, education and health care than Texas. But all those big government programs are surely sapping Massholes of their precious moral values and leading to crime running rampant in the streets and a breakdown in family values! DON'T YOU READ DAVID BROOKS!?!!?!"

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About the time I think I've heard the worst of what anyone can say or do, Charles Koch ratchets it up a notch. This recording was made in June at a secret meeting in Vail, Colorado with right-wing donors. Here's the relevant transcript [Full transcript available at The Brad Blog]:

KOCH: But we've been talking about --- we have Saddam Hussein, this is the Mother of All Wars we've got in the next 18 months. For the life or death of this country. So, I'm not going to do this to put any pressure on anyone here, mind you. This is not pressure. But if this makes your heart feel glad and you want to be more forthcoming, then so be it.

He goes on to recognize a list of donors who have given a million dollars or more to right wing causes, which largely squares with the list published by ThinkProgress last year, but includes a few new names like Charles Schwab, Paul Singer (the hedge fund mega-giver), and John Templeton, Jr.

Perhaps one of the other more remarkable laments on the part of the billionaire Koch family was this one, made later on, in response to Fox News' Judge Napolitano's remarks about how the government fears fear, but they should really be fearful. In response, Charles Koch says 99.9 percent of the media is against them (meaning the right wing, I assume), but that Napolitano is one of the "bright stars."

JUDGE ANTHONY NAPOLITANO: ... So what does the government fear the most? I think the government fears fear. I'm afraid the government is going to take the property and the freedom of everybody in this room. The government should fear that we will take its power away from it and put it into the hands of worthy custodians of our freedom.

Jefferson articulated this when he said, "When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. When the government fears the people, there is liberty."

Thank you and God bless you, my friends. [applause]

CHARLES KOCH: You know, Judge, I wish I had said that. [laughter]

I'm workin' on it. But, you know, we've talked about our competitive disadvantage, how we're overwhelmed in a number of areas, but we have --- and one of those areas, of course, is the media --- and we're overwhelmed. The media's ninety-plus percent against us. But we have a few bright stars and Judge here is one of 'em. So we thank you so much. [applause] Not only for being with us tonight but what you do every day in defending our free society. [full transcript]

This is what we're fighting right here: U.S. billionaire oligarchs who think the elected President of this country is Saddam Hussein. Oligarchs who buy their media yet whine that the media is against them. Oligarchs who view elections as the "mother of all battles." I, too, view 2012 as the mother of all battles, but I wouldn't dare call Charles Koch a deceased terrorist despot, would I?

I'm digging more into the names Koch mentioned and will have more on that shortly. In the meantime, will someone please tell Fox News to ratchet down their whining over "hate speech?"

Of course, it wouldn't be a true Koch megameeting without some high-profile governors in attendance. Brad Friedman reports via Mother Jones:

Several GOP governors made it to the Vail seminar in June, among them Florida's Rick Scott, Virginia's Robert McDonnell, and White House hopeful Rick Perry of Texas. News of the event slipped out after McDonnell put the trip on his weekend schedule; neither Perry nor Scott initially disclosed the trip to their constituents. A Perry spokesman acknowledged his attendance only after the Austin American-Statesman tracked the tail number of a plane belonging to one of the governor's top donors from Texas to Colorado. He described the summit as a "private gathering of business leaders."

I wonder where Scott Walker was. Perhaps he thought it would be bad form to be linked up with his benefactors publicly.

Charles Koch is right about one thing: 2012 is a pivotal election. It's about the Supreme Court and the heart of this nation. It will either belong to the oligarchs or the people, depending.

Charlie Jarvis, chairmen of USA NEXT appeared on Inside Politics and tried to spin his way out of that disgusting ad.

Woodruff: ...is USA NEXT going to run this ad some more, and why'd you only have it up for one day?

Jarvis: We were testing to see if the left liberal groups would over react and they did. The hypothesis was that they'd focus on one single, tiny image on one website ..

Woodruff: It worked.

Jarvis: It worked. By the end of yesterday, to show you how crazy the left liberal groups are and that they have a death wish on Social Security. They were literally having people call (pause)television stations all over the country to pull the ad that didn't exist. Remarkable.

His rational that a scathing reaction to a sickening ad is a "death wish" is ludicrous. That death wish will ultimately rest on the head of Jarvis, and USA NEXT.

Michael Tanner, from the Cato Institute was appalled.

TANNER : Well, we're very disappointed in this ad. full transcript ....We don't think that we should be going down the road to in essence a bigoted approach to gay rights or things of that nature in order to sell the very positive approach that we have for individual accounts.

Video

When you put an ad on a website, it's real.. This kind of sleazy, disgusting display reflects the moral values that your company holds true and ultimately USA NEXT will be thought of not as an alternative to AARP, but as a bigoted, conniving company that will say anything to make a buck. Let's say we believed your bullshit excuse Charlie, that it was a tiny, little ad to trick the left wing groups. (our influence is appreciated) What do you think the reaction of the right wing sites would be to an ad the AARP ran that said this Charlie?

"A starving, elderly couple with graying hair, homeless and in tattered clothes are scavenging through a dumpster looking for food. The Word "Hopeless" is stencilled across the center in red / Flip side: A well dressed Wall Street executive is laughing, smoking a big cigar, drinking some champagne at a casino with a hot chic on his arm while throwing a pair of dice. The word "Jackpot" stenciled across the center in blue. The copy:

George Bush’s Social Security plan will deprive the elderly and the youth of our country the security they might need to live and eat in dignity. While the fat cats at Wall Street will be gambling away the safety net that Social Security provides for their own personal gain. Thanks President Bush. We know who you really care about."

How do you think that one, tiny ad would play out?

Still fresh with the rush of blood in the water, right-wing extremists gathered recently at a secret Washington DC meeting to plan the demise of the country as we know it. Led by ideologues and think tank luminaries, they're all planning the next move. This doesn't surprise me. Nor should it surprise you.

Via Talking Points Memo:

The hush-hush meeting was sponsored by the Conservative Action Project (CAP), an offshoot of the Council for National Policy.

Reagan-era Attorney General Ed Meese, the head of the CAP (not to be confused with the liberal Center for American Progress), was scheduled to address the summit, which drew attendees with speeches from Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) and Rep. Tom Price (R-GA). Press secretaries for both members did not respond to requests for comment about their remarks.

Republican strategist Kellyanne Conway was also on the summit agenda, along with Edwin Feulner, president of the Heritage Foundation, and former Rep. David McIntosh (R-Ind.). Press representatives for Conway and Feulner did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment, but a secretary for McIntosh confirmed that he was speaking at the summit.

A group discussion was to focus on the outcome of the election and the future of the conservative movement. Attendees were also invited to discuss economic, social and national security issues, judicial nominations and state elections and issues.

[...]

Republican House and Senate staffers from the Senate Judiciary Committee and the House Republican Conference made the guest list alongside conservative luminaries like Virginia Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, Republican super-lawyer Cleta Mitchell, ATR's Grover Norquist, the Family Research Council's Tony Perkins, RNC chair candidate Ken Blackwell, American Values President Gary Bauer and David Keene, the chairman of the American Conservative Union.

Well, isn't that cozy? Ginni Thomas as an invited guest to talk about things like judicial nominations. How utterly wonderful.

And look who some of the presenters are:

Organizations scheduled to be represented at the meeting included the National Organization for Marriage, the Media Research Center, Susan B. Anthony List, the Heritage Foundation, 60 Plus Association, the Federalist Society, the Family Research Council, Americans for Tax Reform, Concerned Women for America and the Tea Party Patriots.

Press and media attendees included:

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On This Week with Christiane Amanpour, an interview with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. First of all, this is public diplomacy. Obviously, Clinton is only telling the truth as it suits the long-term Mideast strategy. For example, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ignored the settlement moratorium for which she's praising him -- but hey, that's what diplomacy is: Resisting the urge to slap someone in the face and yell, "Liar!"

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: Madam Secretary, thank you for joining us.

HILLARY CLINTON: It's a pleasure. Thank you for being here in Jerusalem.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: How are the talks going? Are you down beyond the sort of photo-op stage. Are you into core issues?

HILLARY CLINTON: We really are, Christiane. And I have to say, it's been impressive to see the two leaders engage so seriously so early on what are the core issues. But these talks are already into very sensitive and important areas.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: President Obama has said that given the talks going in a constructive way, Israel should continue the moratorium on settlements. Do you believe that that will happen?

HILLARY CLINTON: Well, that certainly is our hope. Now we've also said that we'll support an agreement that is reached between the parties. It took a lot of political capital for Prime Minister Netanyahu to achieve this moratorium. It had never been done before. And I, rightly I think, gave him credit for it about a year ago here in Jerusalem. At the same time, it's been in effect for the time that it was set for and the talks are just starting. So we are working hard to make sure there remains a conducive atmosphere to constructive thought.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: Is there any flexibility you can see, any creative diplomacy that anybody's talked about, to get through this hurdle?

HILLARY CLINTON: They need to keep talking. And each party-- both Israelis and Palestinians need to figure out a way to make that happen.

And I think this President has said, "We are committed. We will stay with you. We will do everything we can to facilitate that." At the end of the day this has to be an agreement between Israelis and Palestinians.

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Good ol' Joe strikes against the neocons' drumbeat for war:

Iran's influence in Iraq has been exaggerated and Tehran's efforts to shape parliamentary elections in the country "utterly failed," US Vice President Joe Biden said on Monday.

In a speech to veterans, Biden played down Iran's role in Iraq, defended the scaled-back US mission in Iraq and argued that the country was on the road to political stability.

"Iranian influence in Iraq is minimal. It's been greatly exaggerated," Biden told the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Indianapolis, Indiana.

"The Iranian government spent over 100 million dollars trying to affect the outcome of this last election to sway the Iraqi people, and they utterly failed," he said, referring to the March polls.

"And it's because politics and nationalism has broken out in Iraq. The Iraqi people voted for their desired candidates, none of whom, none of whom -- let me emphasize this -- none of whom were wanted by Iran."

Biden said that Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and his rival for the premiership, Iyad Allawi, were both deemed "persona non grata" by the authorities in neighboring Iran.

US officials and some lawmakers in Congress have previously voiced concern about Iran's role in Iraq.

I bet that just makes William "Always Wrong" Kristol so hopping mad. After all, he's been lobbying for and predicting an imminent attack by the US of Iran for years.

Another "catastrophic success" for the Bush Regime. USA Today reports that while we've watched Iraq get blown to bits Afghanistan is slowing burning to the ground and stalemated and we've all but forgotten about it.

The adversary faced this year by the Desert Eagles and other American units fighting in Afghanistan has defied military predictions that the Taliban and al-Qaeda were fading. "It's absolutely true that the insurgency has become more effective and the insurgency has moved into more areas," says Peter Tomsen, a former special envoy who helped organize the anti-Soviet Afghan resistance in the 1980s. According to the Desert Eagles: • The insurgency never intended to disrupt Afghan parliamentary elections in September. The plan was to conserve military resources and wait for U.S. and Western allies to withdraw. "They had to deceive us that the elections were successful," Toolan said, "that we would be duped into a false sense of victory and leave earlier, so that they would have that ripe environment to move into open guerrilla warfare." • Candidates linked to the insurgency ran for parliament seats. "We took United Nations candidate lists and we took a list of (insurgent) targets, and we overlaid those," Toolan said. "There were matches."

Bush had the nation pretty much united behind the Afghanistan campaign and if the had stuck to actually completing that mission properly he would reap the political rewards. But nooooooooooooo! He had to launch an imbecilic invasion of a country not at all affiliated with Al Qaeda (until we invaded of course) at the cost of the Afghanistan campaign and the hunt for Bin Laden. Republicans can use the reptilian aspects of their brain for the next three years all they want; but history has already judged Bush over how he has handled the so-called "War on Terror". That judgment will have him fighting it out with James Buchanan for worst President ever. My money is on Buchanan, that crooked-necked boob packed a mean "cockpunch". Posted (hopefully properly "the Radio" is quite aggravating) by Attaturk of www.rising-hegemon.blogspot.com.

The Opinion Mill

The Bush family has often been referred to as the WASP version of the Corleones, but the Soprano clan makes for a much better comparison. At its best, "The Sopranos" is an acid mockery of the phony gravitas of the three "Godfather" movies. Where Michael Corleone is heroically evil, an international player who consorts with statesmen and the Vatican before succumbing to his tragic flaw, Tony Soprano is a sewer rat engaged in the grubby business of preying on human weakness and fear -– when his fall comes, it will be tragic only to himself. Until then, however, he’s going to make as much money as he can for himself and his buddies, and leave the rest of the world holding the bill.

I'm not just using hyperbole here. I do think that when honest historians assess the Bush administration, they will find it more useful to treat George II and his Republican cronies as a criminal organization rather than a political party. The best tool for analyzing Bush's policies is not historiography, but the procedures used by federal agents as they pursue a RICO investigation into a mobbed-up business.

Take the money and run. As long as Republicans are in power, that phrase should replace "E Pluribus Unum" on the national seal. It's the natural outcome of a quarter-century of rhetoric about how government is the problem, not the solution; how government doesn't work; how deregulation is the only way to build the economy. If government is nothing but a taxpayer-funded scam, then why not use it to enrich yourself and your buddies? If the very idea of public service as an idealistic calling has been turned into a mealymouthed joke, then where's the shame in abusing power and running the country into the ground? As long as you can convince just over 50 percent of the suckers to vote your way, you can throw yourself a party and leave the world holding the bill. Read on

Bullet Bags for Bush A Liberal Dose

Displaying the singular tact and deep humanitarianism for which he is so deservedly reknowned, Chief Chimp hostedRead on

Bill's Big Diamond Blog

In the midst of the all-Rove discussions this weekend, a little reality seeps through. Passing through the blogosphere, I stopped by Riverbend to see if she had weighed in recently from Baghdad. She had. Riverbend reported sadly that another blogger, Khalid Jarrar, author of Tell Me a Secret, had been abducted by “the new Iraqi mukhabarat.”

It’s one thing to read the numbers and the see the faceless stories from Iraq. It’s another to be touched by someone’s words and then to know they’ve been taken off, to God knows where, perhaps to rot in jail, perhaps to worse. You get a glimpse of what someone cares about and what their daily existence is like, then see they’ve offended the authorities your own government has set up. By doing what? By simply writing about their life, or turning the wrong corner at the wrong time on the wrong day. Who knows?

Khalid is a blogger I’ve read off and on. His brother Raed is a prolific blogger and both of them have been good sources of information about daily life in occupied Baghdad since the invasion. Khalid had most recently been in Amman, Jordan. He had finished exams at university in Baghdad and had reported about a mortar blowing up one of his fellow students this May (he had suffered from some student laziness and missed class that day). Before that, there was a car bomb 100 meters away from his family’s home. And before that…well, you get the picture. Go, read his blog.

Khalid had recently posted about using real names in his blog and about transparency, a post that makes me now worry for him. Naturally, he’s been critical of the madness around him.
He is now somewhere in an Iraqi prison. His family is thankful to know he isn’t dead. His brother Raed writes today, “my brother is spending his 6th night in jail. He's just one of the thousands of people in Iraq who disappeared and ended up in one of the many jails and prisons around the country without a clear reason.”

Make Judy Talk    The Talent Show is a prolific blogger and both of them have been good sources of information about daily life in occupied Baghdad since the invasion. Khalid had most recently been in Amman, Jordan. He had finished exams at university in Baghdad and had reported about a mortar blowing up one of his fellow students this May (he had suffered from some student laziness and missed class that day). Before that, there was a car bomb 100 meters away from his family’s home. And before that…well, you get the picture. Go, read his blog.

Khalid had recently posted about using real names in his blog and about transparency, a post that makes me now worry for him. Naturally, he’s been critical of the madness around him.
He is now somewhere in an Iraqi prison. His family is thankful to know he isn’t dead. His brother Raed writes today, “my brother is spending his 6th night in jail. He's just one of the thousands of people in Iraq who disappeared and ended up in one of the many jails and prisons around the country without a clear reason.”