02/18/2012 archive

KEITH OLBERMANN: As I noted, we have had – and we will continue to have – as much fun at possible with the on-camera meltdown of Andrew Breitbart in front of a group of Occupy protesters at CPAC last weekend.

But, in our number one-story on the “Countdown” – the subject of rape is no laughing matter. The allegation that a political or cultural group condones or encourages rape and sexual assault, against anyone, is virtually as serious a charge as can be leveled. Yet nearly just as bad is to fabricate, twist, and alter facts, to make it seem like such a charge against such a group has any credence at all.

Mr. Breitbart and his websites have now promulgated a list of what his people boast are 17 rapes at Occupy protests between October 16th and November 19th of last year. Seventeen stories and links, listed “Rapes and Various Sexual Crimes,” and all of them attributed to Occupy.

It turns out Breitbart and his people have padded this list. They have listed some stories twice. In nearly every case, Breitbart’s crew has twisted nearly every one of the allegations in the stories. The idea seems to have been to make as long a list as possible, and assume that your supporters will never bother to link through to the actual stories, let alone follow up to find their true outcomes. Those who do will find Mr. Breitbart and his colleagues are lying.

Story number one – Madison, Wisconsin. Turns out this is the story of Occupy Madison losing its permit for a couple of days, in part because of a charge that somebody was masturbating in public. No charges, no names, no evidence, and even the head of the local business association which brought the complaint, one Mary Carbine, was emphatic that the behavior was, “not necessarily by the protesters themselves.”

Number two – Cleveland. Refers to an alleged assault of a member of Occupy Cleveland. No arrests and the police offer no indication the alleged assailant was a member of Occupy.

Number three – Seattle. Turns out to be the arrest of a man for indecent exposure in schoolyards and other parks, not at Occupy Seattle. Detectives say they were told the suspect had been seen at Occupy and, again, they make no claim he was associated with Occupy.

Number four – Cleveland. This is the same story as number two. Listed twice. This time, a Fox News video is linked as well.

Number five – Dallas. An alleged assault victim told police the sex in question was consensual. She would not press charges nor cooperate with authorities. The claim that there was an assault in the first place originated with one local TV station’s anonymous source in the Dallas police department.

Number six – Portland, Oregon. The registered address a sex offender gave authorities turned out to be the same address as the Occupy Portland camp. The police have no evidence he was ever there, nor do any witnesses place him there.

Number seven – Lawrence, Kansas. A local police captain named Jim Martin is quoted, in the Breitbart-linked story, as saying “someone who had been at the Occupy Lawrence camp reported on Monday morning a possible sexual assault. Martin said he did not believe the victim or any possible suspects were members of the group.”

Number eight – Glasgow. Breitbart assigns responsibility for an assault on an Occupy protester in Scotland to the American Occupy movement. He also does not note that the morning after the incident, Occupy organizers voluntarily began to disbanded the camp after police refused to provide security.

Number nine – Manchester, New Hampshire. A woman operating out of her own home is arrested in her own home there after she tries to turn an Occupy protester into a prostitute.

Number 10 – New York City. An Occupy protester is assaulted in her tent.

Number 11 – New York City. It’s the same story as number ten. They again listed it twice.

Number 12 – Chula Vista, California. On November 6th, a woman posts on the Occupy Los Angeles Facebook page, asking Occupy to help locate her daughter, a 16-year-old named Ashley Springer. The last the woman knew, Ashley Springer was at OccupyLA and then she disappeared. Breitbart does not note that by December 9th, Ashley Springer was home – safe, sound, and unharmed.

Number 13 – Philadelphia. The Breitbart list blares “Occupier Arrest for Rape.” The actual newspaper headline at the other end of the link says “Man arrested in Occupy Philly Sexual Assault.” The alleged victim was a member of Occupy, not the assailant, even though Breitbart implies it was the other way around.

Number 14 – Austin, Texas. A man in a sleeping bag near the Occupy encampment in a public square is arrested for allegedly masturbating in front of a 16-year-old. Again, despite the Breitbart headline, “Occupier Accused of Masturbating In Front of 16-Year-Old Girl,” in the actual story that Breitbart links to, police do not conclude that either the victim or perpetrator was involved with Occupy.

Number 15 – Chicago. A 21-year-old man named Robert Reitz, whom Occupy Chicago confirmed had attended some of its events, is arrested at his home, on child-porn charges. Breitbart does not bother to note that, in the second half of the very story he linked to, Occupy Chicago responded to the arrest by immediately banning this Reitz from its encampment.

Number 16 – St. Louis. Again, the victim in an assault is identified as a member of Occupy, not the alleged perpetrator.

Number 17 – New York City. Again, the victim in a fondling case is a member of Occupy, police identify the assailant as a neighborhood homeless person.

So, seventeen stories Breitbart claims are cases of rape by Occupy. Just reading the stories, just Googling the names of those identified, following up on these stories, that took me only about 70 minutes. The final result? Two cases of the stories on the list were duplicates, one story turns out to have been about consensual sex. One case, in Scotland, led the Occupy group to disband for the sake of safety. One case of an arrest for child porn, with Occupy immediately banning the alleged perpetrator. One case of a girl disappearing, ignoring the fact that she was home and unharmed a month later. Four cases in which police said neither the victim nor the assailant were apparently even associated with Occupy.

That leaves seven stories, all of which show police identifying Occupy participants as the victims, six of which show police identifying the alleged assailants as not being Occupy participants. That is the evidence that Andrew Breitbart has submitted to rationalize his irrational attempt to smear the Occupy movement, and Occupy members, as rapists, and to brand anybody who points out his dishonesty, his twisting of the facts – and who bothers to actually read the stories that disprove his own contention – to paint then as a rape denier or rape apologist.

What Mr. Breitbart and his fellow propagandists have done, in fact, is to take at least eight women – eight members of Occupy, who were raped or otherwise assaulted – and blamed them for being raped. He is not just perpetrating the classic fabrication con of the dishonest man, for whom facts are malleable and can be ignored when they are inconvenient.

More importantly, Breitbart is exploiting rape victims, blaming rape victims. And no woman, no man – conservative, liberal, or indifferent – can abide this despicable attempt to take individual human suffering and, by lying at the top of his voice, try to score cheap political points with it.

Fourteen months ago, Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement members and our allies from National People’s Action and the New Bottom Line campaign met with Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller in Des Moines to discuss the national foreclosure investigation that he was leading.

Miller vowed to pursue a fundamental transformation of the mortgage servicing industry. He spoke like a people’s champion, like someone who would “knock it out of the ballpark” and bring the banks to justice.

But after he announced the details of his settlement with the banks last week, we felt Miller had struck out. [..]

Bold action in the face of grave injustice is not counterproductive – it is required.

If Obama and Schneiderman take these “people first” actions to deliver justice for millions of homeowners and everyday people, then maybe we’ll have something to celebrate.

John Nichols: A Politics That Says: The People Shall Rule

After she organized Eugene McCarthy’s 1968 Democratic primary challenge to Lyndon Johnson, around the time she joined Gloria Steinem, Bella Abzug and Shirley Chisholm in forming the National Women’s Political Caucus, Midge Miller got herself elected to the Wisconsin Assembly. [..]

The point of progressive public service, argued Midge Miller, was not to be a cog in the machine run by corporate and political elites. It was to make the machine work for the people.

So when Midge Miller’s stepson, Wisconsin Senate minority leader Mark Miller, found himself leading a legislative caucus that was being asked to rubber-stamp Governor Scott Walker’s attacks on collective-bargaining rights, civil-service protections and local democracy, he thought of Midge. “She believed that it was the first responsibility of legislators to protect the rights of the people,” said Miller. “She would never have been a part of anything that rammed changes like these down the throats of the people.”

George Zornick: Obama’s Plan to Save the Military From Cuts-at the Expense of Domestic Programs

As budget wonks comb over President Obama’s outline for fiscal year 2013, a startling White House plan has become clear: the administration is seeking to undo some mandatory cuts to the Pentagon at the expense of critical domestic programs. It does so by basically undoing the defense sequester that kicked in as a result of the Congressional supercommittee on debt. This wasn’t a featured part of the White House budget rollout, and for good reason-it undercuts the administration’s carefully crafted message of benevolent government action and economic fairness.

The process for this shift is complicated, and has been flagged by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Essentially, Obama wants to eliminate individual spending caps for both military and non-military spending, and institute one single discretionary spending cap instead. Here’s the basic rundown.

Ari Berman: Howard Dean Predicts Obama Re-Election, Democrats Retake House

No incumbent president since FDR has been re-elected with an unemployment rate above 8 percent. Despite that daunting precedent, an increasing number of political analysts and prominent Democratic Party figures are now bullish about President Obama’s re-election prospects. “Obama’s chances have definitely improved,” former Democratic Party chairman Howard Dean recently told me. “If Mitt Romney’s the Republican nominee, I would say it’s a one- or two-point win for Obama.”

Dean also likes his party’s chances at the Congressional level. “I’m predicting flat-out that if Obama wins, Democrats take back the House,” he says. Other analysts have recently raised that possibility, even though GOP domination of the redistricting process gives Republicans a major edge in 2012.