ohhh_yeah

The shocking truth about the crackdown on Occupy The violent police assaults across the US are no coincidence. Occupy has touched the third rail of our political class's venality Naomi Wolf guardian.co.uk, Friday 25 November 2011 12.25 EST US citizens of all political persuasions are still reeling from images of unparallelled police brutality in a coordinated crackdown against peaceful OWS protesters in cities across the nation this past week. An elderly woman was pepper-sprayed in the face; the scene of unresisting, supine students at UC Davis being pepper-sprayed by phalanxes of riot police went viral online; images proliferated of young women – targeted seemingly for their gender – screaming, dragged by the hair by police in riot gear; and the pictures of a young man, stunned and bleeding profusely from the head, emerged in the record of the middle-of-the-night clearing of Zuccotti Park. But just when Americans thought we had the picture – was this crazy police and mayoral overkill, on a municipal level, in many different cities? – the picture darkened. The National Union of Journalists and the Committee to Protect Journalists issued a Freedom of Information Act request to investigate possible federal involvement with law enforcement practices that appeared to target journalists. The New York Times reported that "New York cops have arrested, punched, whacked, shoved to the ground and tossed a barrier at reporters and photographers" covering protests. Reporters were asked by NYPD to raise their hands to prove they had credentials: when many dutifully did so, they were taken, upon threat of arrest, away from the story they were covering, and penned far from the site in which the news was unfolding. Other reporters wearing press passes were arrested and roughed up by cops, after being – falsely – informed by police that "It is illegal to take pictures on the sidewalk." In New York, a state supreme court justice and a New York City council member were beaten up; in Berkeley, California, one of our greatest national poets, Robert Hass, was beaten with batons. The picture darkened still further when Wonkette and Washingtonsblog.com reported that the Mayor of Oakland acknowledged that the Department of Homeland Security had participated in an 18-city mayor conference call advising mayors on "how to suppress" Occupy protests. To Europeans, the enormity of this breach may not be obvious at first. Our system of government prohibits the creation of a federalised police force, and forbids federal or militarised involvement in municipal peacekeeping. I noticed that rightwing pundits and politicians on the TV shows on which I was appearing were all on-message against OWS. Journalist Chris Hayes reported on a leaked memo that revealed lobbyists vying for an $850,000 contract to smear Occupy. Message coordination of this kind is impossible without a full-court press at the top. This was clearly not simply a case of a freaked-out mayors', city-by-city municipal overreaction against mess in the parks and cranky campers. As the puzzle pieces fit together, they began to show coordination against OWS at the highest national levels. Why this massive mobilisation against these not-yet-fully-articulated, unarmed, inchoate people? After all, protesters against the war in Iraq, Tea Party rallies and others have all proceeded without this coordinated crackdown. Is it really the camping? As I write, two hundred young people, with sleeping bags, suitcases and even folding chairs, are still camping out all night and day outside of NBC on public sidewalks – under the benevolent eye of an NYPD cop – awaiting Saturday Night Live tickets, so surely the camping is not the issue. I was still deeply puzzled as to why OWS, this hapless, hopeful band, would call out a violent federal response. That is, until I found out what it was that OWS actually wanted. The mainstream media was declaring continually "OWS has no message". Frustrated, I simply asked them. I began soliciting online "What is it you want?" answers from Occupy. In the first 15 minutes, I received 100 answers. These were truly eye-opening. The No 1 agenda item: get the money out of politics. Most often cited was legislation to blunt the effect of the Citizens United ruling, which lets boundless sums enter the campaign process. No 2: reform the banking system to prevent fraud and manipulation, with the most frequent item being to restore the Glass-Steagall Act – the Depression-era law, done away with by President Clinton, that separates investment banks from commercial banks. This law would correct the conditions for the recent crisis, as investment banks could not take risks for profit that create kale derivatives out of thin air, and wipe out the commercial and savings banks. No 3 was the most clarifying: draft laws against the little-known loophole that currently allows members of Congress to pass legislation affecting Delaware-based corporations in which they themselves are investors. When I saw this list – and especially the last agenda item – the scales fell from my eyes. Of course, these unarmed people would be having the shit kicked out of them. For the terrible insight to take away from news that the Department of Homeland Security coordinated a violent crackdown is that the DHS does not freelance. The DHS cannot say, on its own initiative, "we are going after these scruffy hippies". Rather, DHS is answerable up a chain of command: first, to New York Representative Peter King, head of the House homeland security subcommittee, who naturally is influenced by his fellow congressmen and women's wishes and interests. And the DHS answers directly, above King, to the president (who was conveniently in Australia at the time). 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. But wait: why on earth would Congress advise violent militarised reactions against its own peaceful constituents? The answer is straightforward: in recent years, members of Congress have started entering the system as members of the middle class (or upper middle class) – but they are leaving DC privy to vast personal wealth, as we see from the "scandal" of presidential contender Newt Gingrich's having been paid $1.8m for a few hours' "consulting" to special interests. The inflated fees to lawmakers who turn lobbyists are common knowledge, but the notion that congressmen and women are legislating their own companies' profitsis less widely known – and if the books were to be opened, they would surely reveal corruption on a Wall Street spectrum. Indeed, we do already know that congresspeople are massively profiting from trading on non-public information they have on companies about which they are legislating – a form of insider trading that sent Martha Stewart to jail. Since Occupy is heavily surveilled and infiltrated, it is likely that the DHS and police informers are aware, before Occupy itself is, what its emerging agenda is going to look like. If legislating away lobbyists' privileges to earn boundless fees once they are close to the legislative process, reforming the banks so they can't suck money out of fake derivatives products, and, most critically, opening the books on a system that allowed members of Congress to profit personally – and immensely – from their own legislation, are two beats away from the grasp of an electorally organised Occupy movement … well, you will call out the troops on stopping that advance. So, when you connect the dots, properly understood, what happened this week is the first battle in a civil war; a civil war in which, for now, only one side is choosing violence. It is a battle in which members of Congress, with the collusion of the American president, sent violent, organised suppression against the people they are supposed to represent. Occupy has touched the third rail: personal congressional profits streams. Even though they are, as yet, unaware of what the implications of their movement are, those threatened by the stirrings of their dreams of reform are not. Sadly, Americans this week have come one step closer to being true brothers and sisters of the protesters in Tahrir Square. Like them, our own national leaders, who likely see their own personal wealth under threat from transparency and reform, are now making war upon us.

“You always want to go back to your old club and prove to the gaffer that you are a better player,” Obertan said. “I feel like I’ve improved since arriving here, and I hope the manager is quite pleased with what I’ve done so far. I will try to play my best game, but the most important thing is the points, obviously, and what the team does. We are just trying to focus on this one and we know it is going to be a tough one. I’ve still got some really good friends there – I call Patrice Evra regularly – so I think it is going to be great to go back there, feel the atmosphere and play against him too. I’ve already told him that it’s going to be hard against me – he is in for a difficult game!”

“Everyone, including the referee, was astounded. He was put in a terrible position. Why can’t the referee overrule it when he is only eight yards away?” Ferguson said. “The problem is that the referees are full-time and the linesmen are not, and whether he ever gets a game again, the assistant referee, is not for me to decide but it was an absolutely shocking decision. It costs you. Two years ago when the linesman gave the offside goal against Chelsea it cost us the league, so hopefully we’re not saying that at the end of May.”

& have a red and blue turf pitch laid down.

indeed...

that pink handbag...

http://www.i-bidder.com/en-gb/auction-catalogues/sir-bobbys-breakthrough-auction-and-ball/catalogue-id-2302/lot-975102# My local team.

Just saw that the fat bastard is selling the "Newcastle United" letters he had removed...

This Friday is my local team's last home match. Bought five racks of ribs to cook for our pre-match get together. In the process of making my own dry rubs and dips for them. Last night I made a Sicilian dipping sauce. Must say I nailed this one. It has orange juice, lemon juice, red wine vinegar, tomato juice, olive oil, honey, garlic, anchovies, red pepper flakes, and mint.

there is a bunch of bands I could name for this but for some reason I am going to say Oingo Boingo.

I can think of two games I played that I have not seen mentioned. First, Me and three friends, tennis court, & a football. Play just like tennis minus the racquet. Drop kick to serve. Second, For this game you needed to pick two trees with plenty of open space between them, one dodgeball , and 5 or more a side. Kick the ball in the air to a teammate. After they collected the ball they could take two steps and then they kicked it in the air. Continue this until you neared your tree. Once you were in the area of your tree you threw the ball at a teammates head. They would then try to head the ball towards the tree. If it made contact you received a point. If you missed you kept trying until the other team got the ball. If they got it they would make their way towards their tree. First to eleven points won. We did not have a name for this game but have since seen it referred to as "Buddha Ball". (Still have my old Commodore and Atari.)

Nolberto Solano regularly spends spare afternoons coaching Newcastle United's Under-11 squad. Sometimes he decides a short walk is in order and takes the boys on a tour of the club's adjacent first-team training facilities. "Children need to dream and they see things which give them a lot of dreams," says the former Newcastle, Aston Villa and Peru right-winger, now enjoying cult status down the road at Hartlepool United. "They stare at the nice cars in the car park and say they want to become professionals too but then I explain it's not as easy as it looks. It helps them realise there's a lot of work ahead and a long way to go." Solano has been on quite a journey since his boyhood as the youngest of seven siblings growing up in an unforgiving Lima shanty town. His evenings were devoted to practising playing his prized possession, a trumpet, but any daylight hours not eaten up by school were spent kicking tin cans and cardboard boxes around the local streets. "It helped my first touch," says the 36-year-old, whose arrival at League One Hartlepool has not only boosted season ticket sales but inspired an unlikely promotion push. "The street is where I got all my skills. The problem for English boys is that they've got so many other things to do they can become lazy about football practice." Not that Solano entirely subscribes to the view that modern affluence is the enemy of youthful talent. "I'm sure children are getting cleverer – I think using computers is making them brighter," he argues. "If you talk to my Newcastle boys about tactics their understanding is amazing. I couldn't have grasped the same ideas at their age. Managing so much new technology sharpens their football brains." Fame has a habit of insidiously changing players irrevocably but, despite his long-standing label as Peru's David Beckham, Solano is refreshingly devoid of the precious streak so many peers succumb to. Aware a knee operation means I am unable to drive, he readily agrees to meet at my mother's home in Newcastle, turns up precisely on time and proves politeness personified. It all rather chimes with the insight offered by a friend working at a nearby branch of Asda who reports that Solano ranks as a rare member of their football clientele prepared to pack his own bags at the checkout. "I like to live a normal life," he says with a shrug. "My Mum used to say: 'You're good at football and maybe you'll be a success but that doesn't mean your personality has got to change.' Whether you're an architect or an engineer or a footballer or a teacher we're all the same," he says. "Maybe some players nowadays need to be more sensitive in some ways; as Sir Bobby Robson used to tell us at Newcastle, everyone deserves the same respect." Hiding behind minders, electronic gates and blacked-out car windows would, in any case, have interfered with Solano's musical persona. These days he plays the trumpet in a Salsa band called the Geordie Latinos, which performs regular live gigs across the region, yet even at the height of his Premier League celebrity he felt the need to "socialise normally and play Salsa together with my friends in small bars". Word of his off-field gift spread to exalted circles. Sitting in Newcastle's dressing room following a Champions League fixture against Juventus in Turin, Solano was "shocked" when a familiar figure burst through the door and made a beeline for him. "It was Sting," he recalls. "He said 'Hi Nobby' in Spanish and we chatted. It was a great shock that Sting wanted to talk to me but I'd always loved The Police so it was a very nice experience." Suitably inspired, he dallied briefly with the idea of becoming a professional musician. "It's not easy, though, a full-time trumpet player practises six or seven hours a day," acknowledges Solano. "I enjoy doing a few gigs but playing every night would be hard. I love music and, on bad days, it lifts my soul but I have more passion for football." This abiding fixation explains why a creator once described as "my favourite player" and "the Little Master" by his former Boca Juniors team-mate and good friend Diego Maradona can be found converting classy free-kicks for Hartlepool. "The knees are feeling it more and more but football is my life, I'm enjoying League One and Mick Wadsworth is a great manager," says the man whose crosses conjured countless chances for Alan "he owes me many hundreds of goals" Shearer. Now in charge at Victoria Park, Wadsworth first met the Peruvian during his time as Robson's assistant at Newcastle. "I was with Hull last season but I wasn't playing, I got bored and gained weight," reveals Solano. "I'd decided I wanted to manage eventually and I also hoped to be able to live in Newcastle again so I spoke to Mick. He said: 'Join Hartlepool, I'll help you with your coaching badges and you enjoy yourself playing as much football as you want for us.' At the moment things are going well, it's all looking very good. We're in a very tight division but, while getting promoted will be difficult, it's not impossible." Television viewers can assess Hartlepool's potential when the cameras capture their game at Notts County on Sunday. It is the sort of journey Newcastle would automatically make by air but Solano is sanguine about the impending four-hour each way bus trip. "We go everywhere, even Bournemouth, by coach. We sometimes travel for six, seven or eight hours; when you finally get home it's a big moment," he says. "Because I enjoy playing so much it's no big bother and my team-mates are great boys but it's very different from before. At Newcastle we flew everywhere; if the lads went on a coach for even three hours they'd go mad." Whenever Hartlepool commitments permit, Solano heads to St James' Park on match days. "I've been to watch the lads a few times," he says. "It's different from playing there but being back still feels great. I see Fabricio Coloccini and Jonás Gutiérrez [Newcastle's Argentinian duo] socially and I think the team's got a real chance of doing well. It will be tougher when winter comes but Alan Pardew encourages intelligent football – he's doing a good job." Solano might be talking about his home-town club and, in a sense, he is. An occasionally complicated private life may have ensured that things on Tyneside have not always been straightforward but the good times have easily outweighed the bad. So much so that the boy from Lima is now very much an adopted Geordie. "Newcastle's where I want to be," he says. "It's a beautiful, welcoming city; I feel comfortable here." He smiles at a suggestion that he sounds like a St James' manager in waiting. "It's easy to say but very hard to do," Solano says with a laugh. "I learnt a lot about the difficulties playing for Ruud Gullit at Newcastle. He was a fantastic coach but too young to be a manager; he wasn't experienced enough to handle big dressing-room personalities like John Barnes, Robert Lee, Duncan Ferguson and Alan Shearer. So I want to go slowly at first, be a coach then an assistant. After that, we'll see but, for now, I want my Under-11s to enjoy themselves, express themselves, play intelligent football – and dream."

"United have announced three fixture changes. The home game with Chelsea on December 3 has been shifted to 12.45pm, the trip to Liverpool is now on December 30 at 7.45pm, and the Manchester United home game will now be on January 4 with an 8pm kick-off."

Did he pick up a slight knock or is it more serious???

Now protests are going on in over 80 cities or planned to start in the next few days. Not many arrests here in Portland compared to other cities. Our mayor has waived the no camping law in the city. Can not say the same for other cities. The protests in New York seem to be the biggest so far. They also seem to be the worse for police brutality. For instance just saw footage where cops directed protesters into an area and then promptly ran them over with their motorcycles. Police there also forced hundreds on to the Brooklyn Bridge and then blocked their exit off. Arrested everybody on the bridge. Who knows if and what will come from all of this.

My city currently: #OccupyPortland to stand in solidarity with #OccupyWallStreet

j69, are you calling bawan a female shotputter???

faces of death...

ipad version is different from the other versions...

Sideshow Bob seals the win...

was Rob Elliot on the pitch???

oh neat, an equalizer. six minutes remaining...

Danny Simpson goal-scoring legend.