Topic “Thom's Blog”

The Mitt Romney campaign is still in crisis after a leaked video showed Romney deriding 47% of Americans who he claims are victims who don’t pay taxes, and who are dependent upon government for everything.  Romney argued that he doesn’t need to worry about these people – and they represent the President’s base.  

And so is police repression of the movement.  Yesterday, Occupy celebrated its one-year anniversary with demonstrations in New York City and more than 30 other cities nationwide.  But in New York, the police were in full force to crackdown on the movement.  More than 180 people were arrested by the NYPD on Monday – including some journalists – mostly for disorderly conduct or behavior that used to be allowed under the 1st Amen

Today marks the one-year anniversary since Americans began highlighting Wall Street's crimes by occupying Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan and eventually hundreds of other cities across the nation. Events and rallies are underway in New York City and elsewhere around the nation to commemorate the occasion, and already there are several reports of more than 70 demonstrators arrested in lower Manhattan.

The fallout from an anti-Islam film made here in the United States continues, as anti-western protests sweep across the Middle East, Asia, and North Africa – including Malaysia, Bangladesh, and Iraq.   More than a dozen nations have now seen protests against Western diplomatic buildings – including British and German embassies.  Reuters is reporting this morning that an angry mob has breached the walls and rushed the Amer

Unrest spread to Yemen today – as an angry mob stormed the U.S. embassy in Sanaa – tearing down the American flag, burning it, pelting the building with rocks, and smashing windows. So far reports indicate that no one inside the embassy was injured. Just like the attacks on the U.S. embassy in Egypt and U.S.

The Arab Spring turned ugly in Libya and Egypt on Tuesday, as angry crowds stormed U.S. diplomatic buildings killing Christopher Stevens – the U.S. Ambassador to Libya – and three other American diplomats.  The deadly attack occurred on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya as an angry mob firing machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades stormed the building and set it on fire.  Stevens is the first U.S.

The nation remembers 9/11 today, and is reminded about the utter failures of the Bush administration leading up to the attacks.  As a new op-ed published last night in the New York Times uncovers, the Bush administration was repeatedly warned in the months leading up to the attack that terrorists were operating in America and determined to carry out an attack.

The nation’s third largest school district is without teachers today.  After contract negotiations fell through over the weekend, the Chicago Teachers Union declared a strike and walked off the job this morning.  This is the first time Chicago teachers have gone on strike in 25 years.

President Obama took the stage at the DNC on Thursday night and instead of talking about change – he talked about choice.  The President said, “when all is said and done – when you pick up that ballot to vote – you will face the clearest choice of any time in a generation.”  You know, it’s easy to resign into cynicism and attack both parties as tools of the corporate elite.  But the President’s speech last night revealed that

Day two of the DNC was one giant punch in the gut to Republicans.  The night featured Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke painting a picture of what America would look like for women if Republicans win in November.  She described a Republican Party that will restrict access to contraceptives for women – force women to undergo intrusive probing before an abortion procedure – and redefine rape.  As Fluke said – the choice c