Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Law and Order Haslam Administration Reveled in Occupy Nashville Crackdown: 'Fun Time Has Started'
Posted by Jeff Woods on Tue, Nov 29, 2011 at 10:17 AM
"Fun time has started," Watkins wrote.
Yes, the laughter is killing us! Jailing idealistic young demonstrators and trampling on free-speech rights — it doesn't get any more hilarious than that. Fun times!
Also according to the newly released documents, General Services billed protesters $1,045 for security the night before the troopers swept in to roust the encampment. That's a good one. Another General Services official joked about punching protesters. At least we think he was joking. From today's story by the AP's Travis Loller:
After the curfew policy was made public, two facility administrators with General Services exchanged emails about distributing copies of the policy to protesters on the plaza. Don Johnson asked how he could help."We should be able to handle it, unless you want to come for moral support!" David Carpenter responds.
"I'll get in trouble and punch one in the head," is the reply from Johnson.
Comments (37)
Showing 1-37 of 37
This is the government someone deserves. Too bad we got it.
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Please direct your calls and love letters to:
Don Johnson, Director of Property Services, Dept. of General Services
615-253-5613
Don.johnson@tn.gov
Also, if Occupy Nashville wants to assemble a group to confront this violent fascist scumbag, the offices of TN General Services are conveniently located nearby at 312 Rosa L. Parks Blvd.
"Jailing idealistic young demonstrators ...."
More accurately known in the real world as rent seeking whiners.
Busting heads and jailing protesters...it is the fascist way.
Every one of these arrested Occupy Nashville protesters should be filing criminal civil rights complaints against every state official --- starting with the governor, members of the Tennessee General Assembly, and including management throughout the ranks of both the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security and the Tennessee Department of General Services --- playing a role in violating their peaceful assembly, free speech, petitioning for redress of grievances, and unequal protection of the law rights under the U.S. Constitution with the Tennessee Legislative Plaza arrests.
right wingers. no matter the religion, or race, they are all about VIOLENCE AND FASCISM.
So if they were charging ON for security, I guess ON got ripped off. Someone should explain what exactly ON got for their money, since ON isn't entitled to equal protection under the law, or "babysitting" as the police called it.
Instead of opposing these true Americans , the Governor should join them
and echo their cause to end the injustice that plagues us all .
Mr. Haslam you are the 1% of the population and seem to be ungrateful that the other
99% make it possible for you to be where you are at .
Every law enforcement officer you dispatch , every order that is carried out ,
every meal that you eat , all of the money you have , is possible only because the 99%
group allows you to exist in the position you enjoy right now . Fame is ever fleeing sir .
If these same protesters take aim on your family business and it should spread nation wide ,
then you will regret your actions forever . You only have power as long as the 99%
allow you to have it . History will repeat itself . Penn State , Tiger Woods , Momar Khadafi ,
and others have fallen from grace . Will the name Haslam join them ?
Gilbert, I also like the phrase "rent seeking" as a way to describe certain behaviors, but your usage is incorrect. Here is an _actual_ example of rent seeking (from Bloomberg):
"The amount of money the central bank parceled out was surprising even to Gary H. Stern, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis from 1985 to 2009, who says he “wasn’t aware of the magnitude.” It dwarfed the Treasury Department’s better-known $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP. Add up guarantees and lending limits, and the Fed had committed $7.77 trillion as of March 2009 to rescuing the financial system, more than half the value of everything produced in the U.S. that year."
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-28/secret-fed-loans-undisclosed-to-congress-gave-banks-13-billion-in-income.html
I've filed charges with the Civil Rights Office of Justice, in Washington, D.C., due to my 'illegal arrest' experience in Tennessee. (Case dismissed and expunged!) Don't take your prescriptions OUT of their bottles, or you'll be arrested for your own drug! I'm trying to protect Tennesseans from their own government and officials. That's how much I want to protect all of you. Governor Haslam spent $31 million tax payer dollars to fund a for-profit prison (the CCA). It's profitable to arrest people. He abolished pretrial diversion for first time convictions... The Board of Pharmacy (Connected to Pfizer pharmaceuticals) passed the Prescription drug laws, allowing the arrest of innocent people for a prescription drug out of its bottle. How can that be a law, when they don't advertise it on the bottles, the inserts or on commercials? It's "Locus Standi"/a law harmful to citizens. He put a law in place allowing corporations to directly fund political campaigns. His biggest donor was Pfizer/King Pharmaceuticals (which merged). The CCA and Pfizer are members of ALEC. They will be funding him against any who would run against him, in the future. It's reminiscent of Wisconsin's Governor Walker. (Look what's happening to HIM!) All of you should file civil rights violations and start a re-call petition. I've been unable to find an attorney to represent me in Tennessee, so I went to D.C. for assistance. Is everyone afraid of this guy? (Not the 99%!) Check out Governor Haslam's Facebook, where I posted. Post your own comments. He doesn't seem to read it though...
615-253-5613 "Ingleweird" (who posted above) put this number in reference to Don Johnson, who stated he'd..." probably punch (an ON) in the head". It WAS his number. He answered in person. I told him his parents raised him badly, and he shouldn't want to punch people in the head. (He stated he appreciated my call). He didn't deny it, at least! Some people need to be shamed.
I've read several of the posted comments and sadly say, we certainly have a bunch of lazy handout mentality idiots in mid-TN who think by sitting downtown they're actually going to do some besides eventually p-off the taxpayers. You want to blame the politicians? Idiots. We (that includes me) voted them in. So keep b-ching, whining and making opened ended off the wall comments about facists when you really don't know what is going on in the world. Go live in another country, I did in several while in the employment of the US Govt. You want to see third world and free speech trampled on? Go there. We have it good here. So go get a bath, get a job and quit thinking everyone owes you something more than a b-slap you immature ingrates.
I should HOPE it's his number; it's listed on tn.gov
While we're at it, let's take a moment to find out what other activities this "Counselor" enjoys partaking in (Perjury? Wrongful convictions?). Now I'm curious... Fun times!
Thad Watkins, General Counsel
615-741-5922
Thaddeus.e.watkins@tn.gov
Min
No busting heads took place, and as a matter of fact, the Troopers
only pulled the little darling arm holders apart, so don't be
making this an exaggerated Bull Conner comparison! So much
truly silly talk about both the Governor and the :"cause" is as
muddled in these postings as is on the Plaza! The main problems
are on Wall St., Pennsylvania Ave, and at the Nation's Capitol
not Charlotte Ave!
WTF is all this occupy crap? What are they asking for? What are the plans to make things better?
How will this 'sit in' from the 60s make any difference. Seems like just a way for people to hang out and shit on the roads.
Personally, I think when the people didnt get up when they were ordered to by the troopers, they should have been pepper sprayed, and YES, I have been pepper sprayed, and guess what I survived without any PTSDor permanant injury. These people have no solutions of their own except to take money from other people and put it in their pockets without working for it. They should put as much effort into finding a job as they do into sitting around. Oh and by the way, I am one of the 99%, but DO NOT AGREE AT ALL with these liberal nutjobs.
(from: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/ci… a decent explanation of some of the requests by the occupiers)
"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."
Many plans have been suggested but it seems that not enough fellow Americans take the time to educate themselves on what their rights actually are, so they just sit back and don't do a darn thing. They don't question what the media tells them. Too many people just tune in to one or two news stations and just accept what they are told. They don't seem to realize how much they are not aware of.
Yes, we do have it better then a lot of other counties, but that doesn't mean we have to be content with what we have left. I am scared to think just how far we will let our government let us fall before we stand up and question them as a people. Chances are by the time you realize what has happened it will be too late and you won't have a single right left.
As for the "bunch of lazy handout mentality idiots" most have homes, jobs and educations. Many of these strong, brave and intelligent young occupiers should be respected and thanked for what they are doing for ALL of us. Don't look now, but their little 60s style sit in is working. We seem to be having a conversation about these things that have long gone unchecked. The first part to changing something is educating yourself and the people of the issues and problems.
I am not asking everyone to run out to the park and join them, or even say nice things about them. All I ask is that you go out and do some research for yourself and make up your own mind. Don't just take what is fed to you.
"Gilbert, I also like the phrase "rent seeking" as a way to describe certain behaviors, but your usage is incorrect"
Ha! Ha! Ha!
My usage is never incorrect.
"Personally, I think when the people didnt get up when they were ordered to by the troopers, they should have been pepper sprayed" --oldrepublicknight
I'd rather be a nutjob than a blind authoritarian any day.
"Whether or not Samuel Adams helped plan the Boston Tea Party is unknown, but he immediately worked to publicize and defend it. He argued that the Tea Party was not the act of a lawless mob, but was instead a principled protest and the only remaining option the people had to defend their constitutional rights." Alexander, Revolutionary Politician, 126,129
Gosh, why didn't those pesky colonists just do as they were ordered by the British?
@Ingleweird - I know Thad, and I doubt his comment was any more than a passing attempt at levity while his bosses were under (well-deserved) pressure. He's a career state-agency lawyer, not a Haslam hire. He hasn't spoken of the ON affair to me, of course, and we probably differ on it. But his comment doesn't shock me nearly as much as Johnson's does.
I know you didn't read that article Gilberto. Very revealing that you are less concerned about the Fed secretly handing 7.7 TRILLION dollars over to a handful of global finance corporations than about a group of folks exercising their rights on the Plaza -- many of whom are angered by things like the Fed secretly handing 7.7 TRILLION dollars over to a handful of global finance corporations.
Haslem and his cronies sound like a bunch of sadistic neantherhals still living in caves. The Repugnant Party has proven their neo con caveman Logic as They had been displayed from the Tea Bagger conventions. Relegating highly educated leaders to the raw basic animal instincts without ryme or reason. Occupy Wall Street Protest are in line with the abuses of Leadership,Financial Opportunist, and Corporate Handouts to offset their move to third world Countries and subidies of products to the United States from former U.S. Corporations.
These People Have every right to Protest your ignorant Policies you recently passed. You want to take a swing Bring it on! Your the cowards hiding behind Laws of doubious distintion. Your cowardly deeds really are more criminal than anything that these Brave, out of work, people have done. They are out of work based on your Policies. Legislative Plaza DOES NOT BELONG TO ANY OF YOU!!!!! Further, General Services and the Rest of you Jackles wanting to hit and charge protesters for you lazy plush jobs is nonsense. Its probaby the most work that you have done in your lifetime. Why not retire and save the tax payers some wasted money. We know where your values are!!
This is what government always turns into. We seem to think in this society that this only happens with other governments. Nope; all governments. People get in and invariably want more and more power. America; the big lie. It is, as it has always been, a feudal caste system operated for the benefit of the privileged class. It is not about equality and free open democratic representation and it never has been. The reality has never matched the rhetoric for all. You live in what is still for all practical purposes a colonial enterprise based upon the extraction of wealth from the masses to benefit the few.
"I know you didn't read that article Gilberto. Very revealing that you are less concerned about the Fed secretly handing 7.7 TRILLION dollars over to a handful of global finance corporations than about a group of folks exercising their rights on the Plaza -- many of whom are angered by things like the Fed secretly handing 7.7 TRILLION dollars over to a handful of global finance corporations"
What is revealing is that you are so devoid of logic to think that posting a story about Federal Reserve activity somehow proves that the occupiers aren't rent seekers. Have big financial institutions been rent seekers? Sure, but that has nothing to do with proving that any other group aren't rent seekers as well.
The occupiers aren't against rent seeking - they just want to get themselves moved closer to the head of the rent seeking line. That's what all that business about forgiving student loans and/or ALL debt, etc. is about.
And it's also what all their blather about "corporate influence" is about. They're primarily just a bunch of leftists who want to socialize business even more than it already is - only with themselves calling the shots.
Anybody who thinks government is supposed to guarantee them anything other than the right to be left alone by that government unless they have actively done somehting to harm someone else is a rent seeker,
Let me see them stand up and advocate drastically shrinking government at all levels and institute pure freedom of contract and free markets without any sort of government industirual policy or targeted subsidies or welfarenad social programs and charge out all government servvices on a user fee basis with no exceptions of any sort for anybody, and then they won't be rent seekers.
This sounds as if we have George Bush as our Governor. He also believes in torture. The GOP is always wanting the first amendment when it is in their best interest.
Jesus hated a dirty, stinking, sign-carrying, public-defecating, dope-smoking hippie...we know that....Pastor Haslam and his College of Christian Cardinals are just doing the Lord's work. Never mind, "Kum Ba Yah", these Haslamite Christians are singing, "Praise the Lord and pass the Ammunition". This is Christianity, "Southern Style".
Gilbert:
What is revealing is that you are so devoid of logic to think that spouting rhetoric about Occupy Nashville participants being rent seekers actually PROVES that they are rent seekers.
"That was easy!"
I would add RICO violations to the lawsuit. There seems to be a curious coordination of efforts by the various states and municipalities. Is Haslam getting his orders from Scott Walker?
"Gilbert:
What is revealing is that you are so devoid of logic to think that spouting rhetoric about Occupy Nashville participants being rent seekers actually PROVES that they are rent seekers.
"That was easy!"
Well you are wrong as usual.
The Nashville Occupiers voted to "support" the Occupy Wall Street group in NY.
Among the things the OWS group has advocated is forgivness of student loans and/or ALL debt. Just as I explicitily mentioned in a previous post.
That is rent seeking and since the Nashville Occupiers have proclaimed that they support the OWS New York crowd, that makes them rent seekers as well.
Now THAT was easy.
Gilbert, what it shows is that one group of "rent seekers" is massively powerful, wealthy and influential. Their lobbyists buy enormous power on capitol hill and insert language directly into many of the laws and regulations that -- indeed, as you say -- "socialize" business wherein gains are privatized, but losses and risk are spread around. The government is their number one tool for protecting corporate profits, at the expense of our nation's health, environment and finances. This group of rent seekers systemically utilizes fraudulent methods of transacting business, from "robosigners" to accounting control fraud, unregulated derivatives markets, and on and on and on. The breadth of crimes is hard to fathom, but Eric Holder's Justice Dept. couldn't be less concerned with going after this group of crooks. But that's because they've tilted the entire game in their favor with campaign cash, lobbying dollars and bribes. It's a feature, not a bug!
Why is it that conservatives can muster so much to rage towards the Occupy crowd, but like Obama's lapdog Attorney General, never seem to give a damn about the _real_ rent seeking criminals that are actually causing immense damage to our nation? Why is "welfare" and "socialism" bad when it helps poor people, but perfectly acceptable when the beneficiaries (again, of $TRILLIONS) are already massively wealthy and powerful corporations? How are conservative media outlets so effective at shifting anger away from the elite who clearly deserve it and onto the poorest and most disadvantaged among us? Aren't conservatives smart enough to see that this divides you while serving only the interests of the already very powerful?
One group of people has forcefully taken the ENTIRE pie and wants more and more for themselves all the time. The other group is merely asking for a few bites, but -- amazingly -- your rage is directed at the latter. Not that you're into facts, but check out this [http://1.usa.gov/ueCvRP] Congressional Budget Office report regarding income inequality in America. I'll wait... Now tell me, who are the rent seekers again?
"One group of people has forcefully taken the ENTIRE pie "
Bullshit.
The only entity that can forcefully take anything is government itself.
No coroporation can legally physically force you to buy their products or services, work for them or do business with them in any way if you do not wish to do so. Government can (and does) do that.
And your straw man position as to what conservative's positions are on rent seekers is also bullshit. There was (and is) plenty of criticism from conservatives for TARP money for banks, the GM and Chrysler bailouts, the "green" energy subsidy boondoggles, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, etc.
If you want to discuss something with me, then base it on what I said - not some straw man construct.
The solution to end rent seeking of all types is (as I previously said) quite simple: get government out of business, social engineering and welfare and leave everything up to pure free markets driven by pure freedom of contract. Government cannot advantage anybody over anybody else then. Goodby to farm subsidies and price supports.Goodbye the the National Labor Relations Act that stacks the deck in favor of labor unions. Goodbye to the Davis Bacon Act that forces taxpayers to pay overpay for inflated union wage rates on federal construction jobs. Goodbye to the Federal Reserve and fiat currency. Goodby to sugar tarrifs and ethanol subsidies. Goodbye to Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, food stamps, AFDC and government mandated employment benefits .
Goodbye to every attempt at social engineering of any type and every attempt to alter anyone's economic outcome in any way.
But of course that isn't what the leftist occupiers want. They want government to be intervening to alter outcomes - they just want to be the one's in the drivers seat on what those interventions will be.
"Congressional Budget Office report regarding income inequality in America. I'll wait... Now tell me, who are the rent seekers again?"
Differences in wealth levels doesn't constitute proof of rent seeking. Only specifics of who, what when and why related to specific government actions in regard to specific individuals or companies proves that. Bill Gates got fabulously rich by building Microsoft and government subsidies or loan guarantees had nothing to do with it.
Not that it's any business of the federal government who has how much money in the first place or any of it's business to be trying to redistribute it.
YouTube.com: George Carlin ~ The American Dream
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acLW1vFO-2Q
About the $7.7 trillion. After reading what was available on the subject it becomes clear that not all of the $7.7 trillion was issued. And how much of it wasn't was not made clear. But the bottom line is, did it work? Yes it did. The Fed money to the banks achieved the objective of preventing the collapse of our financial system. So the bankers received the bonuses their contracts called for, so what? That has nothing to do with your life or my life. Life is not fair; otherwise I would be a professional golfer in between my gigs as the world's most popular entertainer which is only a hobby when I tire of writing respected critiques as the most popular blogger on the web. Somebody else's good fortune has nothing to do with your life unless it contributes to your misfortune and in that case your fingers should be pointing at the government programs that caused the meltdown in the first place.
Occupy Nashville should petition the federal court to have the U.S. Marshals to document that neither the Governor's Office or the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security have not been reducing the normal state security patrols at the Tennessee state capitol and the Tennessee Legislative Plaza (again, not denying ON protesters with their U.S. Constitutional equal protection under the laws rights)...
What is wrong with having democratic conversations?
Haslam should go back to business, Nashville is not a corporate hierarchy
What I would like to know is how you got a private email from Bill Haslam? Isn't that an invastion of privacy, and isn't that against the law? I find you so hypacritical! It's okay for you to break the laws, but others have to be held under a microscope. Also concerning Don Johnson's comments? He's entitled to his opinion, just as you are yours.
