Charlie Hebdo is part of a venerable tradition in French journalism going back to the scandal sheets that denounced Marie-Antoinette in the run-up to the French Revolution.

The tradition combines left-wing radicalism with a provocative scurrility that often borders on the obscene.

"Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history.

One man's (very intense!) description of what he feels OWS is really about.

Stephen heads to Wall Street to gain the trust of Occupy Wall Street protesters and take over the movement.

For example, according to the Congressional Research Service, 290 members of congress who had retired under the Civil Service Retirement System as of October 2006 receive an average annual pension of $60,972. Not bad, but five-figure annuity is chump change compared with what some civil servants make each year.

One California fire chief collects $436,691 a year -- a combination of his padded pension and school consulting income, while a former Congressman convicted of embezzlement collected $100,000 a year.

I went down to Occupy Wall Street to see how protestors were celebrating Halloween. Here are some of the costumes I saw. THERE WAS FREE BEN & JERRY'S ICE CREAM.

A Turkish court on Tuesday pressed separatism charges against 23 suspects, including a university professor and a publisher, on suspicion of membership in a separatist Kurdish rebel group, state-run television reported.

Satellite images have provided U.N. investigators with fresh evidence that the Syrian government once worked with A.Q. Khan, the world's most prolific nuclear weapons merchant.

Boasting glamorous commercials with high production values, a recognizable "brand" and a million loyal brand champions, it was only a matter of time before opportunists started to look for ways to cash in. Now, both the 99% and the 1% are trying to claim 100% of the Occupy Wall Street and 99% movements.

On October 18, Robert and Diane Maresca, a couple from Long Island, New York filed to trademark "Occupy Wall Street" for use on "Clothing, shirts, sweat shirts, headwear, footwear."

Many have seen Joe the Plumber’s presumptive rise to political as some sort of cruel political joke; he is, after all, not trained in any political science or legal background, and his plain-spoken populism appears to be straight from the Sarah Palin school of political rhetoric. But that’s precisely why his political personality has resonated with many of his biggest fans.

Adding a reasoned recognition of the frustrations felt by many of the Occupy Wall Street protestors, when many right-of-center pundits and GOP candidates have been dismissive, only gives Wurzelbacher some indie cred; one can’t purely call him a puppet of the right when he is candidly sharing some (not a ton) of good will towards the protest movement.

A lot of fantastic media has been created about the "Occupy" movement. I was watching one video in particular and commented to a friend, "Wow, seeing all those super smart hot chicks at the protest makes me want to be there." He replied, "Hmmm... Yeah, let's go with that."

Our original ideas were admittedly sophomoric: Pics of hot chicks being all protesty, videos of hot chicks beating drums in slow-mo, etc. But when we arrived at Zuccotti Park in New York City, it evolved into something more.

The hacktivist group Anonymous is making good on its promise of digital retaliation against the Oakland Police Department for the force it used against protesters this week.

A distributed denial-of-service attack against the department's website -- www.oaklandpolice.com -- is underway, and the website currently is unreachable.

Science claims it's working to cure disease, save the planet and solve the greatest human mysteries, but Aasif Mandvi finds out what it's really up to.

Veterans for Peace member Scott Olsen was wounded by a less-lethal round fired by either San Francisco Sheriffs deputies or Palo Alto Police on October 25, 2011 at 14th Street and Broadway in Downtown Oakland

Police fired tear gas Tuesday night into a crowd of several hundred protesters backing the Occupy movement who were seeking to retake an encampment outside Oakland City Hall that officers had cleared away more than 12 hours earlier

Folk music icons Pete Seeger and Arlo Guthrie lent their voices to the protest call of the Occupy Wall Street movement over the weekend.

According to the Associated Press, on Friday, the 92-year-old Seeger — who walked with a cane alongside his grandson, musician Tao Rodriguez Seeger, as well as fellow artists David Amram, Guy Davis, and an estimated 1,000 OWS supporters — marched from New York City’s Symphony Space to Columbus Circle while chanting their protests cries, including the unofficial OWS slogan, “We are the 99 percent!”

After a segment on Herman Cain’s ever-changing and completely incoherent views on abortion rights, Robertson told viewers that he thinks that the Republican presidential nominee may be unelectable if he or she embraces all of the policy positions of the party’s far-right base.

When even Pat Robertson thinks the Republican Party has shifted too far to the right, you know there is a problem:

The inequalities and distortions of capitalist development are often an expression not only of economic liberalism but also of utilitarian thinking: that is, theoretical and practical approaches according to which what is useful for the individual leads to the good of the c …

Yes, there always going to be rich and poor. But we used to live in country where rich owned factory and make 30 times what factory worker make. Now we live in country where rich make money by lying about value of derivative bonds and make 3000 times what factory worker would make if factories hadn't all moved to China.

Capitalism great system. We won Cold War because people behind Iron Curtain look over wall, and see how much more plentiful and delicious cookies are in West, and how we have choice of different bakeries, not just state-owned one. It great system.

Then after Reagan, Republicans decide to make number one priority destroying that system.

Many people believe the Western democracy is superior to a one-party system because the rotation of political power gives government the flexibility to make needed policy changes.

Nationally, the presidential campaign is being waged on the issues of jobs and the economy, but here in Iowa, an entirely different battle is unfolding.

In the competition for the highly influential evangelical vote, abortion and gay rights are at the forefront as Republican candidates try to assure voters of their own convictions and sow doubts about those of their rivals.

Last night I was arrested in my home town, outside an event to which I had been invited, for standing lawfully on the sidewalk in an evening gown.

Four years after Barack Obama campaigned for president, steering clear of provocative statements about race, Cain has floated to the top of presidential polls doing just the opposite. He jokes about race with irreverence. And he aims his ire not at whites but at blacks he believes have become irrationally attached to the Democratic Party.

His overt references to race come in a political landscape that has changed dramatically since Obama became the nation’s first black president. Cain now ranks at the top of several GOP polls, and in a recent Associated Press poll, more respondents expressed aversion to voting for a Mormon than for an African American.

Global protests against economic injustice gripped cities over the weekend, predominantly on Saturday, October 15. Solidarity with Spain's "Indignants" and New York's "Occupy Wall Street" protesters brought demonstrations over the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few and the worldwide economic crisis to cities from Hong Kong to Tulsa.

 House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s speech on income inequality at the University of Pennsylvania was abruptly canceled Friday morning, after his office was told that the school opened the speech to the public.

 

I have been saying since four weeks ago that this Movement is Larger than Right or Left, Democrat or Republican, Conservative or Liberal or even Rich or Poor.  It is a true Grassroots Movement about the instability and unsustainability of a handful of Oligopolists running th …

More ridiculous arrests coming out of New York today, as Citibank proves it's just as bad, or even worse than Bank of America in how it treats its customers.

Instead of focusing on job creation, congressional Republicans have spent their time passing socially conservative legislation like the “Let Women Die” bill that would allow hospitals that receive federal funds to deny women life-saving abortion procedures.

Now Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), one of the most die-hard anti-choice lawmakers, has jumped on the bandwagon by sneaking a radical anti-abortion amendment onto a completely unrelated piece of legislation. DeMint’s amendment would ban women and their doctors from discussing abortion over the Internet:

Mitt Romney (center) and friends from Bain Capital playing with money.

We post 'em-- you decide!

Photos.

Since he's the current president, most people are aware of political activists numerous attempts to  compare President Obama to Hitler.

But is this really something new?

In past years, did other political types compare Bush to Hitler?

This article takes a look at that.

All of a sudden everybody's got an opinion: 1. "I for one am increasingly concerned about the growing mobs occupying Wall Street and the other cities across the country." 2. "I think it expresses the frustration the American people feel."

Free Wood Post is pleased to present this handy visual aid to help the public distinguish Marxists and Nazis in modern American politics.

In the mountains of Kentucky in 1931, the coal miners of Harlan County went on strike. Officers hired by the mining company roamed the countryside hunting for the union leaders. The independent coal miners fought back gallantly against the hired company deputies and blood was spilled on both sides. "Which Side Are You On," was written by Florence Reece, the wife of Sam Reece, a union leader who had escaped into the Kentucky mountains for safety. Class warfare continues in the United States and in most nations throughout the world. Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Lee Hays, and Millard Lampell of the Almanac Singers made this song famous in 1941. -

In a speech yesterday on the House floor, Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) expressed concern about Grover Norquist’s influence on the political process in Washington and his association with several individuals, groups and causes many would consider unsavory.

Protests on Wall Street turned violent Wednesday when police clashed with demonstrators marching through Lower Manhattan in the largest show of strength yet for the Occupy Wall Street movement. 

At one point, protesters were reportedly Maced and threatened with police batons when about 150 marchers demanded access to Wall Street from Broadway.

 

Since Mitt Romney is battling suspicion among Christian conservatives about the depth of his opposition to same-sex marriage and abortion, it is no surprise that he is joining the other major Republican candidates this week to speak at the annual Values Voters Summit, a celebration of the political aims of the religious right.

The conference planners have obliged Mr. Romney, scheduling him to speak right before Bryan Fischer, who is chief spokesman for the family association and is known for his strident remarks on homosexuality, gay rights, Muslims and Mormons. Their talks will be followed by a panel of same-sex marriage opponents.

The liberal advocacy group People for the American Way has called on the presidential candidates, and especially Mr. Romney because he will share a stage, to publicly disassociate themselves from Mr. Fischer and what it called, in a statement on Wednesday, his “unmitigated bigotry.” The Southern Poverty Law Center has made similar appeals to the candidates.

Jon Stewart is amazing-- as always!

One of the most important speeches in recorded history was given by a comedian by the name of Charlie Chaplin

The GOP presidential contest was engulfed in a race row as it emerged that frontrunner Rick Perry has for years owned a family camping retreat called 'N****erhead'.

 

Protesters closed the Brooklyn Bridge in one direction and police arrested hundreds of people on Saturday as Occupy Wall Street entered its third week. The protesters were arrested for standing in the middle of the road and blocking the Brooklyn-bound lanes of the bridge, which  …

The President, citing economic benefits and erasing the costly prohibition of pot, could finally make a bold and gusty proposal that would meet favor with a majority of Americans.

President Barack Obama declared the killing of a fiery American-born cleric in Yemen a "major blow" to al-Qaida's most dangerous affiliate, and vowed a vigorous U.S. campaign to prevent the terror network and its partners from finding a haven anywhere in the world.

But when President Barack Obama told a gala dinner of the Congressional Black Caucus over the weekend that it was time to “stop complaining, stop grumbling, stop crying” and get to work, he instead gave new ammunition to some prominent African American critics who say the nation’s first black president gets tough only when he’s talking to other black people.

 

What do you think about when I say PETA? Animal rights. Celebrities posing naked. Vegetarian and vegan awareness. All great things, right? Sure. Too bad they're a bunch of reasonless rabblerousers that don't care about a human life.

Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry hasn't been shy about his views on evolution.

He caused a stir this month when he told a young boy at a campaign stop that evolution is just a "theory that's out there" and that it has "got some gaps in it." A few days later, he voiced skepticism again when he told a supporter that "God is how we got here."

Perry isn't the only GOP candidate to have made controversial remarks about evolution, however. Below is a slideshow highlighting each Republican presidential hopeful's views on evolution, creationism and intelligent design:

The way I see it, the single biggest problem with the American electoral process is the campaign contribution system, which allows for corporations to finance political campaigns.

Congressman Ron Paul, who is campaigning for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, says that the theory of human evolution is just a theory - and one that he does not accept.

The "Guest Voice" in the article below belongs to Jeff Sharlet, who many of you may know is the author of The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power. I'm currently reading the book, so I found this piece especially interesting.

Sharlet explains how things have changed for the Christian Right since the 1970's, why economic conservatism is so appealing to them, how a schism might benefit Perry, and—perhaps most importantly—what things haven't changed. He also brings up the concept of "male headship", something not only mentioned in the Daily Show interview above, but also in the AlterNet article referenced in one of Charles' posts yesterday about Michele Bachmann.

A 14-point memo detailing the flaws in Texas Gov. Rick Perry's record is circulating among conservatives in Iowa, Politico's Molly Ball reports. Just a couple days after Perry declared he's 2012 candidacy, he sat down for an interview with a Des Moines radio station, during which the host said he'd been "deluged" with more than 150 copies of the memo. So had the station's callers.

Sometimes I just don’t understand why there is always a financially struggling college kid, a low wage worker, or a middle class citizen that feel as though they have to go out of their way to defend tax breaks for the rich. At least once a month I find one person that wants to argue against their own interest and it continues to baffle me.

Rodale is the author of Organic Manifesto: How Organic Farming Can Heal Our Planet, Feed the World, and Keep Us Safe, which cuts through the confusion and misinformation to provide an indispensable look at why chemical-free farming unquestionably holds the key to better health for our families and the planet.

She has won numerous awards, including the 2004 National Audubon Society’s “Rachel Carson Award” and the 2007 United Nations Population Fund’s “Award for the Health and Dignity of Women.” She is a board member of Bette Midler’s New York Restoration Project and co-chair of the Rodale Institute, a nonprofit that has been dedicated to pioneering organic farming through research and outreach to farmers, scientists, and consumers for over sixty years.

Will Barack Obama’s fate be written in the numbers?

A 513-point plunge for the Dow, followed a day later by a drop in the nation’s credit rating.

Home values worth one-third less than they were five years ago.

The share of working-age Americans in the labor force — at just 58 percent — lower than it has been since 1983.

Growth under 2 percent, so sluggish that a second dip into recession looks distinctly possible.

That kind of economic data amounts to a formidable headwind for any incumbent president hoping for a second term.

The U.S.

London (CNN) -- The July 5 ruling by the Dutch Appeals Court on the responsibility of the Dutch government for the 1995 massacre of Bosnian Muslims by the Serb army reminds us of one of the darkest stains on recent history.

Faramarz.M Persian proverb states: if a king picks an apple from a garden of people without permission, the royal guards will remove the apple tree’s stump! This Persian slang indicates when the ruler breaks the law; there is no expectation of the civilians to follow it.  …

      Color and Politics What color is the block in the attached image?  The Conservative…..Black The Liberal….No color….Black, by definition is the absence of color, and let me prove it to you…… (In terms of color as light, …

Christian Thought and Unalienable Rights Here is a brief summation of how Christian Thought Produced Unalienable Rights

Many of the young liberals were peeved; some were outraged. Dozens clustered throughout the day inside the tents they have occupied for weeks.

Jon Stewart-- excellent as always:

GOP - Special Victims Unit

Conservative pundits hate it when liberals play the victim card because it distracts from the real victims: conservatives.

 

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney is considered the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination, but would he be a serious contender to beat President Barack Obama if he wins the GOP nomination? According to a Harris poll, conducted by Harris Interactive, Obama wouldn’t win a second term if Romney won the GOP nomination.

 

Texas Governor Rick Perry has publicly invited people to a prayer event. In this Fox News interview, David Sasser, President of The American Atheists, and Hiram Sasser , legal council for the American Family Association, express opposing views.

A new CNN poll finds that 55 percent of voters have a negative view of the Republican Party, tied for their second-highest unfavorable score since CNN began asking this question in 1992. The Republicans also achieved a 55 percent unfavorable rating in a poll conducted in April 2009, although the party’s all-time high, 57 percent, was recorded as the House of Representatives was in the process of impeaching Bill Clinton in December, 1998.

The news for Democrats is not any better. Some 49 percent of voters now hold a negative view of the party, according to the poll. Although this figure is slightly better than for Republicans, it matches the Democrats’ record high unfavorable rating of September 2010 and is part of an upward trajectory that has persisted for the past three years.

US President Barack Obama handily defeats his current Republican presidential opponents among Jewish voters, according to a poll put out by J Street Thursday.

Michele Bachmann's momentum continues to build and she's taken first place by the smallest of margins on PPP's newest national Presidential poll. 21% of Republican primary voters say she's their top choice to 20% for Mitt Romney, 12% for Rick Perry, 11% for Herman Cain, 9% for Ron Paul, 7% for Newt Gingrich, 5% for Tim Pawlenty, and 3% for Jon Huntsman.

Mahin Saremi : "I have recently escaped the mullahs' dungeons to Europe, in search of Justice on behalf of political prisoners and their families.

What is it about Israel that prompts such a widespread departure from common sense, reason and moral reality? As another insane flotilla prepares to butt across the Mediterranean bringing "aid" to the "beleaguered" people of Gaza, in its midst travelling the MV Saoirse, does it n …

"I think the Republican Party would be well advised to get the heck out of people's bedrooms and let these things get decided by states," Giuliani said Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union." "We'd be a much more successful political party if we stuck to our economic, conservative roots."

By a wide margin, more Americans blame former President George W. Bush for the national economic outlook than they do President Barack Obama, according to a new poll.

Several religious right groups — including those listed as anti-gay hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center — rushed to Michele Bachmann’s defense following reports that she and her husband Marcus’ Christian counseling clinic performs therapy intended to cure homosexuality. The groups argued that the controversial therapy is successful and that media reports of the practices of Bachmann’s clinic amount to anti-Christian bias.

Peter Sprigg of the Family Research Council, which has been listed as a “hate group” by the SPLC, appeared on MSNBC alongside Log Cabin Republicans executive director R. Clarke Cooper

James Zogby, the anti-Israel pollster who released these findings today, blames the drop in support for Obama in the Arab world on Obama’s failure to put the amount of pressure on Israel the Arab world wanted and expected.

Following crimes against humanity in Ashraf in July 2009 and April 2011, nothing justifies United States' refusal to interfere. The non-interference of the U.S. in Ashraf's case is far more serious and unacceptable than the inaction of Dutch forces in Srebrenica tragedy.

The actual Reuters Headline:

"Obama: Seniors could be hurt without debt deal

The Fox News Headline:

"Obama Threatens to Withhold Social Security Checks from Seniors and Vets

A California politician is proposing that his state split in half as a way to address political and logistical issues – marking yet another instance someone has proposed this idea in the Golden State.

Although on a national scale, the idea of splitting up a state may seem novel, similar proposals has been made in California politics more than 220 separate times. But Riverside County Supervisor Jeff Stone is not letting the past failures of these proposals mute his ardor for secession.

 

Booz Allen Hamilton is a massive American consulting firm that does a substantial amount of work for the Pentagon. This means they've got a lot of military business on their servers—which Anonymous hacked. Today they've leaked it.

I have a lot of friends and family who smoke pot, and the majority of them are pretty vocal about wanting it legalized. Let me make perfectly clear right off the bat that I'm not coming at this as an "anti-pot" guy because I personally don't give a @!$%# if they legalize it, and it doesn't bother me that people smoke. I've done my share of illegal substances.

But goddamn are pot advocates some of the most annoying @!$%#ing people on the planet. . . 

The first Republican candidate to sign the list of demands issued by Iowa’s influential radical religious right group “The Family Leader” is, of course, Michele Bachmann: Update: Bachmann is first to sign Family Leader’s pro-marriage pledge.

The unsettling thing about Michele Bachmann’s failed discussion of the founders and slavery is not that the Tea Party “Patriot” knew so little about the birth of the American experiment that she made John Quincy Adams into something he was not. Bachmann has for  …

At the traffic circle in front of the prime minister's office, demonstrators still crowd the streets every week after Friday prayers. Six months since the protests in this desert kingdom started, hundreds of people still join in weekly chants calling for political reform. They still hold up signs demanding an end to government corruption.

On Saturday, April 23 -- in the wee hours of the morning after Good Friday -- an Indiana state trooper pulled over Mecklenborg, who was driving in Dearborn County, with temporary Kentucky license plates. The officer stated in his report that he stopped Mecklenborg for a burned-out headlight, but then suspected he was intoxicated after he smelled alcohol and noticed the state rep's "glossy, bloodshot eyes."

Mecklenborg refused a chemical test, and then failed three field sobriety tests. After a blood test, he was charged with drunken driving. The 59-year-old married father of three also tested positive for Viagra.

Mecklenborg was not alone that evening. His passenger was a 26-year-old woman who is neither his wife nor one of his children.

"

The evidence is clear: Americans overwhelmingly disapprove of Congress and don't believe their representatives share their priorities.

There's plenty of room for debate over whether Congress shares voters' priorities on political and policy issues. But when it comes to personal priorities, at least, voters have good reason to be skeptical of Congress. Most members of Congress simply don't share in the average American experience.

National unemployment has lingered above 8 percent for longer than 28 straight months. Congress, meanwhile, is a club that consists of 245 millionaires.

Video of President Obama from the 2008 meeting of AIPAC personally guaranteeing to never offer any proposals to divide Jerusalem. AIPAC is the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee. President Obama broke this promise Thursday, May 19th 2011 in a speech on Middle Easy policy.

With New York's historic vote, the leader of Bush’s GOP emerged as a key advocate for equality. Samuel P. Jacobs talks to Ken Mehlman about how he helped buttonhole and raise bucks for victory.

Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) Friday claimed their first major attack to avenge Osama bin Laden's death as 80 people were killed in a double suicide bombing on a paramilitary police training centre.

This has nothing to do with intelligence, either -- a few weeks ago I wasted spent 15 minutes explaining to a Fletcher student that, in fact, Julian Assange was not a CIA agent. This sounds laughable, except that at least one head of government said the same thing.

Parallel to this News piece, I received news that there may be a new Humanitarian Catastrophe with regards to the "Camp Ashraf". Iraqi government has sent new unites into the Camp as an invasion! . More news about it will come at the end of this Article.

CAIRO—The Arab League secretary general, Amr Moussa, deplored the broad scope of the U.S.-European bombing campaign in Libya on Sunday and said he would call a new league meeting to reconsider Arab approval of the Western military intervention.

The democratic Gale in the Middle East is also reaching Iran, as an award for all the courageous uprisings, innovation of communicating via Internet by Iranian youth and courage in Iranian prisons. Senior U.S. officials including Governor Howard Dean, former Chair of the U.S.

Whole thing

Postulate: Over time, democracy always degenerates into authoritarianism.

Stevenson; "While the West continues to play these silly games, Iran spreads its evil influence across the Middle East..stop talking to the despots and start listening to the people, back the Iranian masses in their efforts to overthrow this brutal and corrupt tyranny.."

Church performs hymn to Sarah Palin

From her Facebook page

War.