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Nearly 5,000 military families may have been illegally foreclosed upon by banks

The President has adopted the language of the 99 percent, and it's paying off for him. He's surged from a position slightly behind Mitt Romney in last month's CNN polling to a 52 percent-45 percent lead against the Republican this week. While other factors were involved, his new rhetoric about income inequality and forcing everybody to "play by the same rules" resonated especially well with voters who have seen their government enforce one rule of conduct for Wall Street and another for the rest of us.

Unfortunately, his Administration hasn’t backed up that rhetoric with action. It has steadfastly refused to investigate and prosecute the bank crimes who brought this economy to its knees. So have the chief law enforcement officials for most states. Instead they’re trying to cut sweetheart deals that would let crooked bankers go with a slap on the wrist.

People are getting fed up. Grassroots outrage against the lack of prosecutions is giving rise to organized citizen action who are protesting these injustices under a "fair settlement" banner. Will this public backlash become strong enough to finally force national and state governments to enforce the law and protect the economy?

The Excuse Makers

If excuses were investigations there'd be justice for everyone. But only a handful of state Attorneys General, led by New York's Eric Schneiderman, have been willing to stand up to big bankers and their friends in high places. The President himself has been serving as Excuse Maker-in-Chief, as when he told 60 Minutes that “Some of the most damaging behavior on Wall Street, in some cases, some of the least ethical behavior on Wall Street, wasn’t illegal."

That's right, of course, in a literal "what the meaning of 'is' is" sense.. Some of the damaging behavior wasn't illegal. And some car accidents aren't caused by drunk drivers. But many, if not most of them, are. If a country road was littered with whiskey bottles and corpses, and the county sheriff hadn't booked anyone for a DUI in three years, people would be asking why he's not doing his job.

That's what many people are asking about this President and his Justice Department.

You can't set your foot down around this place without stepping in excuses. Another Administration official told a bank-friendly reporter at the Wall Street Journal that it’s too difficult to win convictions for crimes that are as as complicated as banking fraud. “Our job is too hard,” the Justice Department seems to be saying.

But it wasn’t too hard in the 1980s, when a fairly bank-friendly President named Ronald Reagan was running the Federal government. More than 1,000 bankers were convicted in the Savings & Loan scandal for crimes that were very similar to the ones that led to the 2008 financial crisis. A man named Bill Black led the investigations that resulted in those convictions, and the Obama Justice Department hasn’t even asked for his advice.

It isn’t hard for juries to understand lying, either, and stock fraud is usually a case of somebody lying to someone else. There seem to be some pretty clear-cut cases of it lying around waiting to be prosecuted. There is widely documented fraud involving false title documents submitted in foreclosure proceedings; several big banks have already admitted to illegally foreclosing on military families,and investigations show that nearly 5,000 military families may have been illegally evicted; and there's very compelling evidence regarding my former employer AIG.

And it isn’t hard to understand widespread and organized rings designed to forge court documents, commit perjury, and evade state taxes. And yet that’s exactly what big banks did in order to commit massive foreclosure fraud on US homeowners.

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"What Kind of Pie? OCCUPY!"

The mainstream media may be ignoring the protests in New York by the Occupy Wall Street group, but they won't be able to ignore it much longer as the support for their mission continues to grow. The latest development is that the Transit Workers Union voted to join the protests, with more than 200,000 members nationally.

Yesterday, Crooks and Liars writer murshedz called on progressive groups to join in support of the protests and it seems that the number of groups that agree with him is growing quickly. Blogger Matt Stoller argues that the occupation of Wall Street is indicative of much more than a simple protest.

Other groups that have expressed their support are the United Federation of Teachers, 32BJ SEIU, 1199 SEIU, Workers United, the Working Families party, the Coalition for the Homeless, MoveOn.org, Make the Road New York, the Coalition for the Homeless, the Alliance for Quality Education, Community Voices Heard, United New York and Strong Economy For All.

Separately, union members from the Air Line Pilots Association protested in the New York streets in favor of fair wages and benefits.

The actions in New York by Occupy Wall Street and other organizations are also spreading to other locations and are related to protests like the Wisconsin rallies against Scott Walker and the Awake the State movement in Florida. They are a sign that the mass of Americans is tired of conservative economic politicians and businessmen who are selling out the people while making themselves rich.

EDITOR'S NOTE:

We are getting donations together to buy pizzas for the occupiers around the nation:

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Ever notice how conservatives love to preach to everyone else about the virtues of responsibility and accountability, but really, really hate it whenever anyone holds them accountable?

When they get called out for destroying the economy, they shift the blame to minority lending. When their underlying racism comes bubbling up and people point it out, they run to shout "bloody shirt" and turn the victims into demagoging perpetrators, declaring that liberals are the real racists. When it's pointed out that they coddle far-right extremists within their ranks, they claim they're just being smeared. When some far-right extremist indulges in some act of extreme violence inspired by their insane rhetoric, they claim that mean liberals are just trying to silence them by pointing out the connection.

And when organized labor tries to hold corporate CEOs and banking executives responsible for the economic havoc they have wreaked on working people, they call it "thuggery."

Michelle Malkin was on Fox earlier this week promoting the anti-unionists' latest smear campaign against SEIU, claiming that a union members' handbook they just discovered -- even though it has been generally available for a long time, and certainly was not a secret -- somehow coaches union "thugs" in various tactics of "intimidation."

They trotted out footage of that protest held by the SEIU in May 2010 where they went to the home of Bank of America lobbyist Greg Baer to ask him to speak with some of the people whose homes were being foreclosed upon. Malkin and the Fox host tried to make this out to be some unspeakable horror, claiming that Baer's teenage son was alone in the house and had to hide in the bathroom.

In reality, Baer himself was out on the lawn of the house, mingling with the protesters:

Not surprisingly, neither of them talked with us. In fact, Gregory Baer from Bank of America initially tried to blend in with the crowd and, instead, let a family member answer the door. When one of his neighbors pointed him out to us, he announced he "didn't have time for [us]," and went inside.

Police at both events described the proceedings as entirely peaceful and cordial. That, of course, didn't stop Nina Easton, Baer's next-door neighbor, from describing them in her Fortune column as "a mob." That might have some thing to do with the fact that Easton's own husband has close business ties with Bank of America. (We're also acutely aware of Easton's deep compassion for the unemployed.)

Malkin was actually just teeing off a Vincent Cernuccio column in the Moonie Times, claiming that the handbook they "uncovered" gives union members all kinds of tips for thuggish behavior.

SEIU is in federal court defending itself against charges of racketeering and extortion filed by one of its unionizing targets, the catering company Sodexo Inc.Sodexo's court discovery recently revealed an SEIU “Contract Campaign Manual” on “Pressuring the Employer.” Union pressure is nothing new, but what SEIU recommends is not limited to organizing drives and strikes. Rather, the pressure takes the form of a so-called corporate campaign, whereby the union allies itself with outside third parties to raise intimidation to a new level.

SEIU’s manual details how “outside pressure can involve jeopardizing relationships between the employer and lenders, investors, stockholders, customers, clients, patients, tenants, politicians, or others on whom the employer depends for funds.” The union advises using legal and regulatory pressure to “threaten the employer with costly action by government agencies or the courts.”

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We've been saying all along -- practically since it happened, in fact -- that the right's claims that Tea Partier Kenneth Gladney, a black man, was victimized by SEIU "thugs" during a health-care protest was dubious at best, and Gladney's subsequent claims (particularly that this was a "hate crime") even more ludicrous.

Now it seems that a Missouri jury agrees:

CLAYTON, MO –(KMOX)–Almost two years after the national uproar over health care reform, a jury has acquitted two labor union activists accused of assaulting a man selling conservative buttons outside a Cogressman Russ Carnahan town hall forum.

Service Employees International Union members Elston McCowan and Perry Molens had been accused of misdemeanor assault in the August, 2009 tussle with button salesman Kenneth Gladney. The fight caught national attention at a time when there was rampant speculation the union had been dispatched to tamp down opposition to President Obama’s health care reform.

Jurors heard conflicting testimony in the two-day trial over who actually started the fight, and they viewed video tape showing the end and aftermath of the brawl — but no video showed who threw the first punch.

Of course, the wingnutosphere -- particularly those like Jim Hoft at Gateway Pundit (aka the World's Dumbest Blogger), who heavily promoted the claims in the first place -- is outraged, outraged we tell you.

But as Adam Shriver at St. Louis Activist Hub observes:

The conspiracy pushed relentlessly for the past two years by Dana Loesch, Jim Hoft, Andrew Breitbart, Fox News, and the tea party has been shown at long last to be a complete fraud. Two innocent men have been harassed and threatened for two years as a result of a tea party smear campaign with only one objective: to make unions look evil.

Shriver covered the trial, and pointedly observed that Gladney's own testimony doomed the prosecution:

Gladney's testimony was the most damaging to the prosecution's case. For starters, Gladney appeared in a neck brace, which brought back memories of him showing up at a tea party rally in a wheel chair despite the fact that he was running around with no obvious discomfort immediately after the altercation took place. The defense lawyer said that Gladney's neck brace, which he was wearing because of surgery for a herniated disc, had nothing to do with the altercation, and Gladney did not challenge him on that point, so I assume it's true. But this opened up a criticism from the defense lawyer who asked Gladney why he showed up at the tea party rally in a wheelchair. Gladney said, basically, that it was hot and he was on medication and "they didn't have folding chairs or lawn chairs." Ouch.

... A more important problem for Gladney was that his previous descriptions of what happened did not match his current testimony. He previously had claimed that Elston McCowan, a black minister, had called him the n-word. In today's testimony, he now claimed that Perry Molens, a white man, also called him the n-word, which would be a strange detail to leave out of all of his previous interviews. More importantly, he had previously claimed that 4 different people "attacked" him, yet now he clams only two. He also claimed that he "never said a word" to McCowan, which I'm pretty sure is at odds with his previous interviews. And finally, his story of the altercation provided no explanation of why Elston McCowan was seen lying on the ground at the beginning of the video And all of this was despite the fact that he told the defense attorney that his memory today was as good or better as immediately after the incident happened.

And as Riverfront Times noted:

The defense also hammered Gladney on why he was seen walking around virtually unscathed in the immediate aftermath of the fight only to show up in a wheelchair two days later at a Tea Party rally.

Shriver also completely demolishes Hoft's new conspiracy theory about Gladney with an impressive array of facts. This guarantees, of course, that it will continue to enjoy a significant half-life of several more years as one of the Right's classic Zombie Lies.

Eric Boehlert is (as always) on the money:

As I said, the incident was regrettable and I'm sure everyone involved, if they had a chance to go back, would make sure the night did not unfold the same way again. But the idea that the mini-altercation was some sort of on-command union attack directed from the Oval Office and that it represented a looming wave of left-wing violence in this country? That was always a sick joke. It was a sick joke played at the expense of Gladney, and at the expense of two union members who were crucified by the right-wing press and called every conceivable name. All without a shred of evidence to support the union-bashing denunciations.

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Unfortunately, Washington Democratic Gov. Chris Gregoire has been forced to adopt the "slash, don't tax" mentality more common with Republican governors after voters rejected several new taxes in November's election and restricted the Legislature's ability to raise taxes without a statewide vote.

Labor unions aren't going to let it go unchallenged:

Seventeen people were arrested after trying to storm the governor’s office in a third day of protests over state budget cuts Thursday.

In a prelude to what unions say will be a bigger rally today, a protest organized by the Service Employees International Union brought about 500 people to Olympia to call on lawmakers to end corporate tax exemptions before cutting state services.

Most protesters rallied in the Rotunda of the Legislative Building Thursday afternoon. Several were eventually arrested when they tried to push past Washington State Patrol officers guarding the governor’s office and refused to leave.

Protesters pushed against troopers stationed at the governor’s door shouting “let us in” and “we want the governor.”

“They (legislators) need to listen to us,” said Sharon Kitchel-Perdue, a home-care worker from Olympia and one of the protesters arrested.

Sgt. John Sager, one of the troopers on the scene, said that some of the protesters said they wanted to be arrested, and eventually, their actions gave troopers no choice.

“It was getting pretty hairy in here,” Sager said.

Back in December, Gregoire proposed cuts in the budget targeting the "Disability Lifeline" formerly known as GA-U or General Assistance Unemployable:

Programs that help Washington's poor were among those cut from Gov. Chris Gregoire's proposed two-year budget Wednesday, a plan she said she hated so much that "in some places, I don't even think it's moral."

Gregoire used a mix of cuts to state programs, suspension of voter initiatives and use of the state's "rainy day" fund to patch a projected $4.6 billion deficit.

The approximately $3 billion in cuts to her 2011-13 budget included the elimination of the Basic Health Program, which provides subsidized medical insurance to 66,000 poorer Washingtonians. Also eliminated is cash grants and medical care for the Disability Lifeline program, which mostly aids childless adults who are unemployable but not receiving federal aid.

Among local recipients of Disability Lifeline grants are survivors of domestic violence, who often suffer from post-traumatic stress and other mental health issues that can make it difficult for them to hold employment.

[...] Gregoire noted that the word "eliminate" is used about 80 times in her budget.

"I hate my budget," she said, tearing up. "I hate it because in some places, I don't even think it's moral."

Sate Republicans, of course, are thrilled. Austerity makes them tingly!

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SodexoUSA has filed a RICO lawsuit against the SEIU, claiming it is using strongarm tactics to force the company to unionize.

According to their corporate website, they allege that SEIU is trying to force workers to replace other unions with theirs.

• The complaint alleges that the SEIU, in face to face meetings, threatened Sodexo USA's executives that it would harm Sodexo USA's business unless they gave in to the union, and then carried out its threats through egregious behavior, including:
• throwing plastic roaches onto food being served by Sodexo USA at a high profile event;
• scaring hospital patients by insinuating that Sodexo USA food contained bugs, rat droppings, mold and flies;
• lying to interfere with Sodexo USA business and sneaking into elementary schools to avoid security;
• violating lobbying laws to steer business away from Sodexo USA, even at the risk of costing Sodexo USA employees their jobs; and
• harassing Sodexo USA employees by threatening to accuse them of wrongdoing.

Ordinarily this wouldn't garner much of my attention, but given the multi-pronged attacks on the SEIU by every right-winger in the land, I decided to look closer at SodexoUSA and their executives in particular to see if there were any relationships or donations to Republican governors. Since their business is privatized food services to hospitals and other concerns, it seemed like something to investigate.

They're not all that transparent on corporate governance, but in the process of looking, I found this nugget:

Sodexho Alliance is a holding company. Through its subsidiaries, Co. is engaged in two main activities: the Food and Facilities Management Services and the Service Vouchers and Cards. The Food and Facilities Management Services segment provides food services and facilities management services to businesses and industries, armed forces, correctional services, healthcare services, seniors, school and colleges and remote sites. The Service Vouchers and Cards segment offers 2 products for companies and governments. The first one plays a role in the motivation of employees and the second one supports public authorities in implementing and monitoring their social aid programs.

Remember Susie's article last week about Minnesota's plan to issue state-approved cards to people on public assistance? Makes me wonder whether or not one of their approved vendors is this company, or whether they're positioning themselves to bid on these state contracts. I don't know. I haven't been able to find anything. Yet. But it seems strange to me that this company with what appears to be a history of antagonism with unions is going full-tilt hard-hit with the RICO lawsuit.

They've got a history of controversy, especially around their unionized workers. In April, 2010, 200 workers walked off the job at the University of Pittsburgh, along with workers on 5 other campuses.

"Sodexo doesn't respect us. I can't afford to put my kids on the company insurance, but I don't want to keep them on state insurance," says Danielle Rue, a Sodexo worker whose children rely on state-provided health care. "How can a company that made a billion dollars force me and my kids onto welfare? When we tried to stand up for ourselves, they violated our rights. They do it to non-union workers, too."

Sodexo food service workers who belong to a union are not the only ones supporting the UPitt food service workers who are taking a stand. Other union workers have pledged their solidarity.

"Our union and others are going to support striking SEIU Sodexo workers," said Bill Cagney of International Union of Operating Engineers Local 95, who represents workers at the university. "Pitt is a responsible employer. But when the big multinational companies like Sodexo come into Pittsburgh and refuse to follow the law or provide family sustaining jobs, labor will stand together."

There was also a walkout in Ohio, where workers alleged Sodexo was blocking their right to unionize. Danny Glover was arrested while protesting outside their corporate headquarters in Maryland last year.

This is the private side of the war on unions waged in conjunction with the public side in state legislatures. The end goal is the same: union-busting, union defunding, maximize corporate profits, and spend lots of money litigating cases against them.

When is union organizing racketeering? When you're a multinational company with lots of profits waiting to be taken out of the mouths of employees.

In a somewhat ironic twist, Sodexo's philanthropic bent is toward ending world hunger. You've got to wonder if paying their employees a decent working wage and providing health insurance might be one step toward that goal.

The next time you hear some lofty conservative twaddle about our freedoms, please point them to this Think Progress post and ask for an explanation. Ask them why they think they're threatened by government when we have large corporations funding private investigations and smear campaigns against people who speak against them.

According to e-mails obtained by ThinkProgress, the Chamber hired the lobbying firm Hunton and Williams to spearhead this effort. Hunton And Williams’ attorney Richard Wyatt, who once represented Food Lion in its infamous lawsuit against ABC News, was hired by the Chamber in October of last year. To assist the Chamber, Wyatt and his associates, John Woods and Bob Quackenboss, hired a set of private security firms — HB Gary Federal, Palantir, and Berico Technologies (collectively called Team Themis) — to develop tactics for damaging progressive groups and labor unions, in particular ThinkProgress, the labor coalition called Change to Win, the SEIU, US Chamber Watch, and StopTheChamber.com.

Tread carefully here. The US Chamber left themselves a layer of plausible deniability, as Marcy Wheeler carefully explains. Bottom line: The Chamber of Commerce hired an attorney, who then farmed out assignments on spec to dig up dirt on their "enemies" and smear them.

Here are some of the proposals (PDF). One that caught my eye was this one:

Create a false document, perhaps highlighting periodical financial information, and monitor to see if USChamber Watch acquires it. Afterward, present explicit evidence proving that such transactions never occurred. Also, create a fake insider persona and generate communications with CtW. Afterward, release the actual documents at a specified time and explain the activity as a CtW contrived operation. Both
instances will prove that US Chamber Watch cannot be trusted with information and/or tell the truth.

Got it. Plant a false document with financial information, wait for USChamberWatch to "acquire it", and when they use the information, nail them for lying. Lie to them and then get them for lying.

But there's much, much more. Not only did these hired thugs go after ThinkProgress, SEIU and others, they also went after bloggers like Brad Friedman, family members of people they were after, including children. They hacked social media accounts and compiled personal information (dossiers) on everyone.

New emails reveal that the private spy company investigated the families and children of the Chamber’s political opponents. The apparent spearhead of this project was Aaron Barr, an executive at HB Gary. Barr circulated numerous emails and documents detailing information about political opponents’ children, spouses, and personal lives.

One of the targets was Mike Gehrke, a former staffer with Change to Win. Among the information circulated about Gehrke was the specific “Jewish church” he attended and a link to pictures of his wife and two children (sensitive information was redacted by ThinkProgress):

Here it is:

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Yesterday was MoveOn.org's national day of protest against the Citizen's United decision and the influence of corporate donations on our representatives in Washington.

For 23 years my representative has been worthless, so this was an opportunity to rally against Citizen's United and make a showing for what united citizens can do, especially since he's flirting with the tea party in order to pander to the corporate arm of the Republican party.

Here's some background on MoveOn's goals, via The Nation:

Starting in May, MoveOn organized more than 150 community forums across the country and consulted with experts in the public policy, netroots and legal communities to craft a progressive response to Citizens United. In late June MoveOn members overwhelmingly approved a three-part "Fight Washington Corruption" pledge calling for (1) overturning the Court's decision through an amendment to the Constitution; (2) passing the Fair Elections Now Act in Congress, which incentivizes candidates to collect small donations by offering competitive public matching funds; and (3) enacting tough new laws cracking down on the revolving door between government officials and lobbyists. A diverse coalition of advocacy groups, including the SEIU, Democracy for America (DFA), People for the American Way and The Nation signed on as co-sponsors. MoveOn called it "our most ambitious campaign ever."

That picture at the top was our group. You might think it was small, but for this area, it was huge. We're a red, red district slowly turning a shade of purple. Everyone was motivated, fired up, and ready to push toward November and the defeat of our particular corporate Republican do-nothing congressman.

We collected 40 signatures to present to Rep. Elton Gallegly, who was out of his office and in Washington DC busily voting against the bill to help states pay for teachers, firefighters and policemen. Nevertheless, our presence was felt, and noticed by passers-by and inhabitants of his office building.

Now that the Senate has managed to stop the DISCLOSE act dead in its tracks, it's open season. The FEC is issuing rulings right and left in support of schemes opened up by Citizens United. Target's contribution was disclosed, at least. The next one may not be.

Did we accomplish much? Actually, yes. We have a good-sized group of committed and connected people with a goal not only to fight corruption, but to send a long-term Republican congressman to the unemployment line, where he can make a claim for the benefits he voted against on three separate occasions.

Not a bad night's work.

Other photos from rallies around the country on Flickr. Here's one from Common Cause's event in Pennsylvania, too.

And from Indiana:

Granted, it's the Politico, but still an interesting look at the mindset around Obama. Gee, I wonder if a certain Pretty Ballerina also feels the same way about the $10 million the Democrats spent on Arlen Specter's campaign?

A senior White House official just called me with a very pointed message for the administration's sometime allies in organized labor, who invested heavily in beating Blanche Lincoln, Obama's candidate, in Arkansas.

"Organized labor just flushed $10 million of their members' money down the toilet on a pointless exercise," the official said. "If even half that total had been well-targeted and applied in key House races across this country, that could have made a real difference in November."

Lincoln relied heavily both on Obama's endorsement, which she advertised relentlessly on radio and in the mail, and on the backing of former President Bill Clinton, who backed her to the hilt.

Lincoln foe Bill Halter had the unstinting support of the AFL-CIO, SEIU, AFSCME and other major unions. And labor officials Tuesday evening were already working to spin the narrow loss of their candidate, Bill Halter, as a moral victory, but the cost in money and in the goodwill of the White House may be a steep price to pay for a near miss.

I love the AFL-CIO response:

"If that's their take on this, then they severely misread how the electorate feels and how we're running our political program. When we say we're only going to support elected officials who support our issues," said AFL-CIO spokesman Eddie Vale. "When they say we should have targeted our money among some key house races among Blue Dog Democrats — that ain't happening."

"Labor isn't an arm of the Democratic Party," Vale said. "It exists to support working families. And that's what we said tonight, and that's what we're going to keep saying."

Andrew Breitbart has taken alleged "SEIU thug victim" Kenneth Gladney under his wing, because it's very difficult to be a victim without someone to pimp said victimhood for political points, after all. Kenneth Gladney, as you might recall, is the man who was handing out flags at a Russ Carnahan town hall meeting on August 6, 2009 in Missouri when he claims to have been 'attacked' by a large man wearing a SEIU t-shirt. The video above was shot at the scene (actually, just after the 'assault'), and Dave has a great post pulling apart the fake narrative here.

This case is about to come to trial (at Mr. Gladney's insistence), which gives Breitbart all the more reason to pimp Gladney and his little "rescue fund" at Bank of America. Before you reach for your checkbook, some things to consider:

• Gladney's story stinks to high heaven. Here is the original police report, posted by Breitbart himself. Gladney alleges that Elson McCowan leaned over his flag table, provoked a confrontation, and then punched him in the face! Just like that. Punched him in the face. So I looked at the police report to see if he received medical treatment, because being punched in the face can be really, really bad. Black eye, broken nose, all that. And you can see from the video that Elston McCowan is a big guy. Linebacker big.

  Here's an image from the detective's report, written right after the incident occurred:

  

  Wow. So this is news. A punch to the face causes elbow pain. Huh. Who knew?

• Since August 6th, Gladney's pain has moved from his face to his back. In his most recent appeal for money, his brother writes on his behalf (because it wouldn't do for a crime victim about to testify in court to do his own shaking down):
  

  Kenneth Gladney is not doing well at all. He has found out that he has three bulging disc in his back and neck and may need surgery. He has back pain all the time and has to have medication to help the pain subside. Since the incident on August 6th of last year when he was beat up by SEIU thugs while selling flags and buttons at a Russ Carnahan town hall meeting, Kenneth has had nothing but problem after problem with his health and his financial situation. The family is trying to help him as much as we possibly can, but we just can’t afford the cost of his meds and doctors visits. This is why we need your help.

  Wow. Punch a guy in the face, he has no visible bruises or evidence that he was punched by a great big guy, but long after the fact, he has 3 bulging discs and the need for surgery. This is terrible. No wonder he needs money.

• Less-than-credible witnesses? Witnesses #1 and #2 in the police report corroborate each others' stories and Gladney's. Let's meet them, up close and personal. They are Harris and Sandra Himes. Harris Himes is pastor of the Big Sky Christian Center in Montana. Sandra is his wife. The Himeses are well-known agitators and activists associated with the Montana Family Coalition, formerly known as the Montana Christian Coalition. Yup, no bias there. Besides...what were Montana activists doing at a Missouri town hall meeting? It isn't possible they were disrupting democracy, is it?
• First lawyer David Brown was also Gladney's employer, fellow flag and pin hawker. He sort of forgot to disclose his relationship when he appeared with wheelchair-bound Kenneth Gladney on Fox and Friends the following day. Oh, and Brown is also one of the witnesses interviewed in the police report. All the time Fox and Friends (and Breitbart) are pimping this guy and whining about SEIU thugs, hate crimes, and all manner of terrible things, that relationship is never disclosed. Not once.

  

  In fact, Brown and Gladney traveled out here to LA to sell flags at Michael Jackson's funeral the month before this incident. Quite the pair, they are. They made a little bit of money in December when the Tea Party Express folks wrote a check for $460 or so to buy up some flags and pins for their next tour. I'm surprised they didn't invite Gladney along for the ride on TPE III.

• Elston McCowan is the true victim. The only person with a real injury from their encounter was Rev. Elston McCowan, who dislocated his shoulder. Here's the hospital report confirming it.

This is quite similar to my own experience back in September, where nearly 200 of us were attending a peaceful vigil for health care reform when violence broke out after one of the tea party gang (Bill Rice), punched a guy out twice, knocked him in the street, and then got all bent out of shape when his fist "happened to land in the other guy's mouth" and his finger was bitten off.

In the meantime, Andrew Breitbart continues to pimp this guy on BigGovernment.com as if Gladney and his brother are are some kind of victim or something. They're running a conservative con, and if anyone knows about cons, it's Breitbart, after all.

You can read the SEIU's version of Gladney's "victimhood" here.

Update: The document images I used in this post were uploaded by the St. Louis Activist Hub. I also just finished reading through an excellent post on , and have new appreciation for the work and detail they've put into researching this case. I certainly hope their evidence is used to discredit this story. It's obvious they've taken much time to really work out all of the details. Their take on how things played out is slightly different from mine, but leads to the same conclusion. I also recommend reading their entire case against Gladney.