Are they going to redistribute it now?

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — The first financial report of the Occupy Wall Street demonstration in New York City shows protesters have raised more than $454,000 and have spent slightly more than $50,000 in the movement’s first five weeks, a person close to the movement said Friday.

The financial report, given to The Associated Press by the person, was to be released Friday evening in Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park, where the protesters have an encampment. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because the spreadsheet analysis hadn’t been released.

The demonstrators are providing reporters daily updates showing more than $500,000 has been donated, but this is the first fiscal report of the Occupy Wall Street movement and part of its move to provide greater transparency.

The loosely assembled group’s spreadsheet shows most of the spending is for food, clothing, laundry, medical supplies and treatment, Internet services, cameras and telephone and computer expenses. Park expenses including sanitation have cost more than $1,100, according to the report.

Kind of funny if you ask me.

(CBS News) — It appears that Google’s mysterious search algorithm has been making a suggestion that Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney may not appreciate.

When a Google user types the phrase “Romney can win” into the search engine, its spell check function responds with the message, “Did you mean: Romney can’t win?” Slate first stumbled upon the curious result and notes that no other GOP candidate is the victim of this Google glitch.

What exactly is behind the spell check suggestion will remain a mystery — more than 200 variables go into the Google search algorithm, which ranks search results and produces spell check suggestions. Google, for its part, insist it’s nothing personal against Romney — just a flaw in the system.

And we’re fighting and dying to keep this Sharia regime in power.

(CNSNews.com) — When asked by CNSNews.com whether Afghanistan should repeal its laws that make it a crime for a Muslim to convert to Christianity, Afghan Ambassador to the United States Eklil Hakimi did not answer directly but said that while his country’s constitution provides for “freedom of religion” it also says that “nothing will be contradictory to Sharia law.”

The State Department report on religious freedom in Afghanistan released last month said: “Conversion from Islam is considered apostasy and is punishable by death under some interpretations of Islamic law in the country.”

CNSNews.com asked Hakimi: “Regarding religious freedom, according to the State Department, at least two individuals had been detained in Afghanistan for converting from Islam to Christianity. Should Afghanistan repeal all laws that make it illegal to convert?”

Hakimi said: “Well, according to our Constitution, there is a freedom of religion. Meanwhile, it says that nothing will be contradictory to the Sharia law. So, while we step into those principles, we have to be careful because we are in a very conservative society, a society that they live based on their faith. So, those cases that you have mentioned, our government, based on these principles, they have handled those cases in a very timely manner and also in a way that should not deter from those principles.”

Keep reading…

Here’s the video of him on Tuesday denying he’s filthy rich:

And here he is now backtracking (although he doesn’t mention his actual net worth, $50 million).

(MSNBC) — Anti-capitalist film director Michael Moore has drawn fire in recent days for standing with the Occupy Wall Street protesters while failing to acknowledge that he is part of the “1 percent,” not the 99 percent.

Now the director of “Capitalism: A Love Story” and other documentaries has come clean and admitted that he is indeed among the nation’s wealthiest citizens, but without providing details of just how rich he is.

In a post titled “Life Among the 1%” on his blog “Open Mike,” Moore recalls how he made his first millions when he sold the distribution rights to his 1989 breakthrough hit “Roger & Me.”

At the time of his $3 million windfall, Moore says he was just getting by on unemployment payments of $98 a week.

So what did he do with his newfound wealth? Moore says he “proudly” paid nearly $1 million in taxes, used $1 million to establish a charitable foundation and spent the other $1 million on a new car, payments on a New York City apartment and more donations, including helping to rebuild a church that had been burned down in his hometown of Flint, Mich.

“What remained went into a simple, low-interest savings account,” Moore said. “I made the decision that I would never buy a share of stock” — a resolution he said this week that he has kept to this day.

Of course Moore went on to become among the most successful documentary filmmakers in Hollywood. While “Roger & Me” made $6 million in box office receipts, later movies made far more, capped by his 2004 film “Fahrenheit 9/11” excoriating the Bush administration’s response to terrorism, which grossed over $222 million, according to IMDB.com.

That would certainly put him among the top 1 percent of earners (the current threshold is about $350,000 a year), although Moore said his income varies quite a bit from year to year, saying that some years “I don’t have a job. . . and so I make a lot less.”

(The Hill) — Democrats on the supercommittee already have conceded too much to Republicans, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said Friday.

“These ‘supercommittee’ Democrats have put all their concessions on the table up front in the vain hope that the Republicans might reciprocate,” Trumka said in a statement. “But it doesn’t work that way. In this political climate, concessions beget more concessions — not a workable compromise.”

Trumka and other liberals were angered by reports that the six Democrats on the panel offered a proposal that would reduce deficits by $3 trillion in part through cuts to Social Security and Medicare benefits.

“We call on politicians of both parties to stand firm and demand that Wall Street and the wealthy finally pay their fair share — given the extraordinary increases in corporate profits and income inequality in recent years. This is the moment we need to raise our voices to let Congress know that we will not stand for dismantling the safety net or letting Wall Street and the wealthiest Americans off the hook,” Trumka said.

Who would have thunk it?

Via the Washington Wire:

Mr. Cain’s camp, as of the latest tally Friday morning, says the former Godfather’s Pizza CEO has pulled in nearly $5 million in donations — earlier reported as $3 million — since the start of October, with the cash surging even faster since his aides earlier this week posted a quirky web video ad that featured his campaign manager, Mark Block, puffing on a cigarette.

“Our donations online have shot up a lot since that ad,” says Mr. Block, who claims the weird, 56-second spot has now entered the eyeballs of at least four million people on YouTube, CNN, Fox News and other cable stations that have aired it repeatedly since Monday.

“Yes, the smoking part of that ad was controversial — and I don’t in any way condone smoking — but the message that Herman Cain is a different kind of presidential candidate is certainly resonating across the country,” said Mr. Block. He insists that the sheer oddity of the ad has helped burnish Mr. Cain’s image, contrary to the reaction of most other Republican campaign operatives.

Mr. Block says the bulk of the campaign’s donations have come in online, averaging around $60 a pop. “The money we are getting is wildly beyond our expectations,” he said.

During the last two fund-raising periods, covering six months, Mr. Cain raised $4.7 million from donors and chipped in $675,000 of his own money. But that was before Mr. Cain took off in national polls and became the latest favorite of conservatives who aren’t wild about former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

If his cash inflow for this month doesn’t slack off in November and December — a big if — Mr. Cain would notch one of the best quarters of the campaign so far. Only Mr. Romney and Texas Gov. Rick Perry are the only candidates so far to have tallied more than $15 million in any one quarter.

The campaign, in turn, is spending a lot more, especially on staff. Mr. Cain had 37 paid staffers working for him in early September. That number now sits at 60, Mr. Block said.

Apparently the calls to murder police officers isn’t enough to scare Obama away.

(Politico) — In the early days of Occupy Wall Street, the simple if loosely-defined notions that propelled the action made it safe and relatively easy for political leaders, including President Obama, to express some solidarity.

But now it’s getting complicated.

Occupy Wall Street is costing cities millions in security and cleanup. The movement still has public support, but violent clashes in spots like Oakland and prolonged urban camp outs in cities including Washington create a potentially awkward scenario for some who were quick to embrace it.

“Look, people are frustrated,” President Obama said earlier this week of the protests on “The Tonight Show.”

“What this signals is that people in leadership, whether it’s corporate leadership, leaders in the banks, leaders in Washington, everybody needs to understand that the American people feel like nobody is looking out for them right now,” Obama said.

Earlier, ahead of his most recent bus tour of North Carolina and Virginia in support of the American Jobs Act, the White House touted the movement’s “99 percent” slogan, as part of a larger message about the economy and joblessness.

On Friday, White House press secretary Jay Carney did not distance the White House from the movement, but was careful to define Obama’s support as within certain parameters.

“The president has said that he understands peoples’ frustration, he understands that those frustrations are are felt very broadly by the American people — at least those frustrations that have to do with the fact that the economy isn’t strong enough, the fact that unemployment is too high and the fact that Washington is dysfunctional,” Carney said.

Carney declined to address an emerging issue with mayors who are increasingly frustrated with the costs, hassle and problems associated with the demonstrations, saying, “I am not going to get into assessments of individual cities and how they are responding and what their cost burden is.”

Am I the only who can’t recall instances of Tea Partiers jerking off in public?

Via Pundit Press:

Occupy Madison has temporarily been denied an extension in their protesting permit because members of the movement violated “public health and safety conditions.” The group also did not properly fill out the form.

City officials cited several specific reasons for their decision. The most notable was repeated complains from a nearby hotel, which stated that protesters were “publicly masturbating” in full view of passersby.

Keep reading…

Occupy Wall Street voices from Zuccotti Park: Daniel Zetah, 35 — NY Daily News

Thirty-five year old Daniel Zetah is originally from Minnesota but has been living in Tasmania for the past ten years. He has a degree in Economics and Business however; he works as a builder and an environmental educator. He has been at the Occupy Wall Street protests for the past three weeks.

Name: Daniel Zetah

Age: 35

Where he’s from: “I’m from Tasmania.”

Employment Status: “I’m a builder and an environmental educator.”

Political affiliation: “I would say it’s most closely aligned with the Green Party but at this point I feel a-political because this movement is not really about politics.”

How long has he been coming to Zuccotti Park? “I have participated in the protest for about three weeks now.”

Does he sleep in Zuccotti park? “I sleep in the park.”

Why did he join the Occupy Wall Street protests? “I was inspired to join this because I have been waiting for something like this all of my life.”

“I grew up in America, in Minnesota and always felt like I wanted to have political discussions with people but it was something that was almost taboo in this country.”

“I’ve been waiting for people to actually wake up from their consumerist slumber that most westerners have been under for so long and actually have discussions about what is real.”

“What’s happening right now in our political system is very real. Our environmental system and our economic system are very real. They have humongous impacts on us and the world around us but we haven’t been talking about it and this is getting people to talk about it.”

What are his demands? “We don’t have any specific demands. We have some goals.”

“We want corporations and the government to completely split. We want to cleave this relationship that is so toxic. That is probably the largest goal we have today.”

What he thinks the outcome of the protests will be: “We succeed and we create a new system of governance that allows for true democracy where corporation voices are not seen as people and we have direct control over our government.”

“If we fail, this civilization that is known as America will collapse. It will turn into a police state and I will flee back to Australia and live in my little community in Tasmania and hope that it doesn’t reach over there.”

HT: Jay

Follow the money.

(WaPo) — An investment firm whose vice chairman has been an adviser and fundraiser for President Obama saw one of its portfolio companies win approval this year for $50 million in loans from the administration’s clean-energy loan program.

Washington-based Perseus says its affiliation with James A. Johnson, a major fundraiser for Obama’s campaign, played no role in persuading the Energy Department to award the loan to Vehicle Production Group, a Miami start-up that is manufacturing wheelchair-accessible cars and taxis.

Johnson headed Obama’s vice presidential selection committee in 2008 and is the former chairman of housing mortgage giant Fannie Mae. He was listed as a campaign fundraising bundler for Obama in the 2008 race, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, and committed to raising $200,000 to $500,000 for the upcoming presidential race.

Johnson could not be reached for comment Thursday. Perseus Chairman Frank Pearl said in an interview that it is an “absurd idea” to think that Johnson’s political connections helped the Miami company.

“I doubt there was anybody at DOE that even considered the fact that Jim was part of this firm. We went straight through the proper channels of the [loan] program,” he said.

Keep reading…

A true man of the people.

HT: BreitbartTV

Hoo-rah!

SANAA (AFP) — Three Al-Qaeda operatives were killed and six others were wounded on Thursday in a suspected US drone strike on a Yemeni village in the restive southern Abyan province, a local government official told AFP.

“An unmanned aircraft, likely American, struck the village of Shaqra . . . and killed three Al-Qaeda operatives and wounded six others,” said the official who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity.

He said the militant group has been carrying out military training exercises in the area, adding that near-by residents had reported sounds of gunfire and explosions in recent days.

Yemeni troops have been battling Al-Qaeda linked militants in Abyan since May when a group called the Partisans of Sharia (Islamic Law), believed to be linked to Al-Qaeda, overran several Abyan towns, including the regional capital Zinjibar.

The official told AFP that the militants remain in control of Zinjibar and the town of Jaar, while government troops are stationed on the outskirts of both.

Groan.

(Telegraph) — Washington is ready to negotiate with Taliban leader Mullah Omar and now regards his involvement as crucial to the prospects for peace in Afghanistan, Hillary Clinton has said.

Her comments been taken as a significant shift in American policy from moves to divide the Taliban-led insurgency and isolate Mullah Omar, the man who sheltered Osama bin Laden as he plotted the September 11 attacks, to an acknowledgement of his leadership.

It follows the disclosure earlier this month that American officials had met leaders of the Haqqani Network, the powerful Taliban faction blamed for some of the most devastating attacks on American and Nato forces in Afghanistan, including last month’s attack on the US embassy in Kabul in which seven were killed and 19 wounded.

Earlier this week the faction’s commander Sirajuddin Haqqani warned Washington that only the Quetta Shura, led by Mullah Omar, could negotiate a peace deal and that his fighters would not be divided from its leadership.

Mrs Clinton said the Haqqani meeting not a “negotiation” and that no subsequent meetings have followed it, but stressed any future negotiations with the Taliban would need the Quetta Shura’s blessing.

“The negotiations that would be part of any Afghan-led peace process would have to include the Quetta Shura and would have to include some recognition by the Quetta Shura which, based on everything we know, is still led by Mullah Omar, that they wish to participate in such a process. . . We are pursuing every thread of any kind of interest expressed,” she said.

Her change of tone follows earlier exploratory talks with a senior aide to Mullah Omar in Qatar and German earlier this year and appears to have been influenced by her visit to Pakistan last week, where she met army chief General Kiyani and President Asif Zardari. Sources close to the Pakistan military said General Kiyani warned her that “if this game is to end in success for the United States, they have to take these people [the Taliban] on board.”

Time to retreat back to mommy’s basement.

Via AoS

The gist of his deflection: But . . . but . . . but . . . the Republicans do it as well!

Cop killing, how progressive.

Via Ed Morrissey:

Hot Air has confirmed with the Arizona Department of Public Safety that fliers have been found at Occupy Phoenix instructing people on when to shoot police officers. . . .

It’s a lengthy flier, but these two paragraphs are worth noting, as they capture the general flavor of the missive:

Pick any example of abuse of power, whether it is the fascist “war on drugs,” the police thuggery that has become so common, the random stops and searches now routinely carried out in the name of “security” (e.g., at airports, “border checkpoints” that aren’t even at the border, “sobriety checkpoints,” and so on), or anything else. Now ask yourself the uncomfortable question: If it is wrong for cops to do these things, doesn’t that imply that the people have a right to RESIST such actions? Of course, state mercenaries don’t take kindly to being resisted, even non-violently. If you question their right to detain you, interrogate you, search you, invade your home, and so on, you are very likely to be tasered, physically assaulted, kidnapped, put in a cage, or shot. If a cop decides to treat you like livestock, whether he does it “legally” or not, you will usually have only two options: submit, or kill the cop. You can’t resist a cop “just a little” and get away with it. He will always call in more of his fellow gang members, until you are subdued or dead.

Basic logic dictates that you either have an obligation to LET “law enforcers” have their way with you, or you have the right to STOP them from doing so, which will almost always require killing them. (Politely asking fascists not to be fascists has a very poor track record.)

Keep reading…

And Obama considers this his crowning achievement.

(HealthWatch) — Support for Democrats’ healthcare reform has hit its lowest point since the law passed in March 2010, says a new monthly poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation.

After months of split support for the law, 51 percent of respondents to the latest poll had an unfavorable view while only 34 percent had a favorable impression.

The key reason for the change, the poll found, was Democrats’ waning support: Even though they remain more favorable to the law than Republicans and Independents, the proportion of Democrats with favorable views has decreased from about two-thirds to just 52 percent in October.

The poor polling numbers all but ensure that the law will be a handicap for many Democrats — and the president himself — going into the 2012 election. They also suggest that Republicans’ constant hammering at the law has been effective: Only 18 percent of respondents now expect that they and their families will be better off thanks to the law, down from 27 percent just last month.

This should get the left all riled up.

(The Hill) — Herman Cain said pushes by the “so-called Palestinian people” for statehood and an Iranian assassination plot to kill the Saudi ambassador to the United States were evidence that President Obama was perceived as weak in the Middle East in an interview with an Israeli newspaper.

“I think that the so-called Palestinian people have this urge for unilateral recognition because they see this president as weak,” Cain said during an interview with Israel Hayom. “I haven’t seen all the facts but I think this whole assassination attempt was another example of seeing this president as weak, in that regard. So, weakness invites attack and I think that he has projected a sense of weakness.”

The Republican frontrunner also said that the president “threw Israel under the bus” when stating support for a peace process brokered around the framework of the 1967 borders.

“I believe that his lack of a firm stand regarding Israel has emboldened Israel’s enemies, and America’s enemies,” Cain said. “He threw Israel under the bus with the statement about the 1967 borders. He just threw them under the bus. He threw Prime Minister Netanyahu under the bus prior to his visit to America. In a Cain administration there would be no question in the minds of the world and the American people that we would stand with Israel.

Cain was asked how he would handle relations with Iran differently, and said that he would attempt to “choke them.”

He’s a follower of Wahhabi Islam, courtesy of our “allies” in Saudi Arabia.

SARAJEVO (AFP) — A suspected radical Islamist gunman who opened fire Friday near the US embassy in Sarajevo was wounded and arrested, a police spokesman told Bosnian television.

“The person who fired an automatic weapon was wounded and arrested during the police operation. After receiving medical treatment on the scene the person was hospitalised,” police spokesman Irfan Nefic told national BHT television.

Earlier media reports said the man, identified as a member of the Wahhabi branch of Islam, was killed by a sniper after firing a Kalashnikov rifle at the US mission.

Bosnia is home to a small minority of followers of Wahhabism, a strict and ultra-conservative brand of Islam which is dominant in Saudi Arabia.

During Bosnia’s 1992–95 war between its Croats, Muslims and Serbs, a large number of volunteers from Muslim nations flocked to the Balkan country to take up arms.

Many of these Muslim fighters stayed on after the conflict and obtained Bosnian citizenship. Some in the mostly moderate Bosnian Muslim community have converted to the more radical Islam preached by several ex-mujahedeen.

Update: Sadly, he survived.