We were in the street, but this guy didn’t even give us a chance to get out of the way.Riverdale, Md. resident and Occupy DC protester Jesse Folks, describing the situation with the driver involved in tonight’s hit-and-run incident near the protests around the Washington DC Convention Center. The vehicle struck three people in two separate plates, and the driver was later captured. He’s in custody and his blood-alcohol level will be checked.
metamorphoseandbodhi asks: Never mind, it works now. :)
» SFB says: If the video in our last post wasn’t working before, it was a YouTube issue. We uploaded our own version of it, and that’s working fine. Everyone watch it. It’s a crazy video that needs to be seen. — Ernie @ SFB
Here’s the scene from the Occupy DC protest: The video comes from Occupy K Street, one of the protest hot spots in the city (there are two). They have more videos here. (Unrelated editor’s note: Whenever Tumblr’s Mark Coatney stops into town to have a meetup, the bar he usually picks, The Passenger, is right in this general area.)
Occupy DC heats up outside Reagan tribute: Hundreds of protesters blocked streets near the Washington DC Convention Center near Mt. Vernon Square tonight, in an attempt to prevent people from leaving the center. Why’s that? Well, it’s currently hosting the Defending the American Dream summit, a Ronald Reagan tribute put together by Americans for Prosperity and featuring the two top presidential hopefuls, Herman Cain and Mitt Romney, amongst many other conservative icons. Here’s the scene from outside, via Washington Post reporter Tim Craig, who is there and writing stories about what’s happening and took the photo, above. Two people have been reported injured thus far — both hit by cars.
jeffmiller says: To be fair, the election board counsel felt he was railroaded. From Time: “George Dunst, the Board’s former general counsel, recalls that the evidence was shaky. ‘[Block] got screwed,’ he says. ‘They really did a number on him.’”
» SFB days: Fair enough. The AP story didn’t bring up that particular detail. But it’s also worth noting that the sentence directly before the one you pulled said this: “Former board member David Halbrooks remembers it as a slam dunk case.” We changed the story slightly to reflect the non-open-and-shutness of the case. But we do recommend you read the whole story, which also notes that within the past few years, he’s been nailed for sketchy robo-calls in Wisconsin. — Ernie @ SFB
Cain allegedly has deep ties to the Koch-funded Americans for Prosperity. The currently-soaring presidential candidate has built up his base with GOP voters through an image that he’s a non-politician who’s not beholden to anyone (and makes a good pizza). But Cain has a history with the controversy-laden Koch brothers that he does not promote very heavily — at least not as heavily as his business career. The Associated Press’s article on Cain’s deep ties to Americans for Prosperity found some fairly surprising things:
» Ties that still stand: While Cain no longer gets paid for his appearances with AFP (he used to, before he started running for president), he is still active with the group. For example, Cain will speak at an AFP event in DC on November 4, despite the fact that most of the other presidential candidates will be at a dinner in Iowa. The caucus is in Iowa; what’s this guy doing in Washington? Wait a second! (photo by Flickr user Gage Skidmore)
As a follow-up to last night’s post, it’s probably good to point out that when you’re building propaganda pieces, the tone is everything. So, showing images of supporters of socialism at a Democratic Party rally doesn’t seem so bad on its own. But when you add the Russian National Anthem like our friends at the Koch-brothers-funded Americans for Prosperity, it takes a sinister tone. We’d say “disagree with socialism, don’t demonize it,” but we know that Americans for Prosperity receive so much money that they can pretty much do whatever they want. Oh wait, according to the rules on 501(c)(3) nonprofits, they shouldn’t be making videos like this at all. source
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